[pp.int.general] Fwd: [The IPKat] PPI: better inside the tent, or out?

[Francisco George]

I think this is a very good analisis by Jeremy who is a Intelectual
Property Defendant!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jeremy <jjip398 at googlemail.com>
Date: 2012/10/4
Subject: [The IPKat] PPI: better inside the tent, or out?
To: ipkat_readers at googlegroups.com



<http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HYQSjfdUA3E/UG1V_LOQKFI/AAAAAAAAapo/9BBONfQGYhw/s1600/ppi.jpg>
*Non-approval of PPI's
observer status: it seems
a little fishy ...* *"Delay Of Pirate Parties’ WIPO Observer Status Raises
Questions"* is the striking title of a *post
today<http://www.ip-watch.org/2012/10/04/delay-of-pirate-parties-wipo-observer-status-raises-questions/?utm_source=post&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alerts>
* by Intellectual Property Watch's William New.  It reads, in relevant part:

"Member governments of the World Intellectual Property Organization
yesterday approved all but one application for international
nongovernmental observer status at the UN agency: Pirate Parties
International. This is likely to lead to a discussion of who can be an
observer, sources say.

The action was taken on 3 October during the annual WIPO General Assembly,
without significant discussion, after closed-door informal meetings of the
Group B developed countries that included a consult with the WIPO general
counsel, according to sources.

The *Pirate Parties International <http://www.pp-international.net/>* *[PPI]
*group is registered as a Brussels, Belgium-based international
nongovernmental organisation. It represents the Pirate Party movement,
which includes numerous elected officials worldwide, with a platform of
striving to reform law regarding copyrights and patents.

Political parties may be able join WIPO as observers through an NGO, and
the PPI asserted in its application materials that it is an international
NGO that supports pirate parties, and is not itself a political party.

Some Group B countries such as Sweden and Germany have publicly elected
officials from the party, and were reportedly more reluctant to take a
stand against observer status.

According to a participant, Group B countries were looking for a legal
basis to block the group from joining WIPO, but could not find an objection
based on current WIPO admission procedures. Countries need more time to
analyse the application before deciding, the source said. It could be
considered during the year to amend the admission procedures, another
source said.

There could be consideration given to narrowing the scope of who could be
an observer, as some think it has expanded beyond those specifically
interested in IP rights. WIPO now has some 200 NGO observers, more than
member states.

In particular, France, Switzerland and the United States were named by NGO
Knowledge Ecology International as having raised questions about allowing
political parties in as observers. Several sources confirmed Switzerland
and the US.

Amelia Andersdotter, a Swedish Pirate Party representative to the European
Parliament, in a *blog
post<http://ameliaandersdotter.eu/2012/10/03/world-pretentious-property-organisation/>
* entitled “World Pretentious Property Organisation” yesterday called the
decision “distressing.” She suggested that it runs contrary to WIPO
Director General Francis Gurry’s call for WIPO to remain non-political, by
actually politicising the issue of membership.

Andersdotter noted that in WIPO, the European Union, represented by the
European Commission, does not have a voice as it is not an independent
member of the United Nations.

Nick Ashton-Hart of the Computer and Communications Industry Association
(CCIA) raised a question about the PPI delay to Intellectual Property Watch
afterwards.

“If the NGO’s application falls within a plain wording of the rules and
regulations defining what NGOs may be accredited, then the application
should be granted. ... From our perspective, what harm can there be for the
secretariat of a political party to be an observer at WIPO? If anything, it
seems to us this will lead to a better understanding by that secretariat of
the international dimension of IP public policy, which is no bad thing”.

A Pirate Party representative was quoted in a *report on TorrentFreak
<http://torrentfreak.com/france-us-switzerland-block-wipo-membership-for-pirates-121003/>
*as saying the group was not even informed by WIPO that its application was
up for decision this week.

WIPO would not comment on the PPI subject other than to confirm that
members had deferred the decision. ... ".

This Kat is not a member of the Pirate Party and does not support its aims
and objectives: far from it, he finds little in the Pirate Party programme
that appeals to him at all.  However, he is obliged to say that the
organisation as a whole has impressed him more than he ever imagined it
could.  First, it has sought to advance its aims through debate, discussion
and the democratic process rather than through attacking websites of
intellectual property owners and organisations; secondly, those members
whom he has met have shown a welcome willingness to learn how intellectual
property actually works so that they can criticise it from a position of
knowledge rather than merely chant hostile slogans against it.  Like Nick
Ashton-Hart, in the quote above, he sees no reason why any organisation
should be denied observer status if it fulfils the formal criteria for
accreditation and agrees that the presence of the PPI is  likely to
increase understanding; it can hardly diminish it.

--
Posted By Jeremy to The
IPKat<http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2012/10/ppi-better-inside-tent-or-out.html>on
10/04/2012 10:27:00 AM

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