wipo-PublicAwarenessOfCopyright-2002.html (7745B)
1 <!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> 2 <!-- Parent-Version: 1.96 --> 3 <!-- This page is derived from /server/standards/boilerplate.html --> 4 <!--#set var="TAGS" value="essays term" --> 5 <!--#set var="DISABLE_TOP_ADDENDUM" value="yes" --> 6 <title>Public Awareness of Copyright, WIPO 7 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> 8 <meta http-equiv="Keywords" content="GNU, FSF, Free Software Foundation, WIPO, Intellectual Property" /> 9 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/wipo-PublicAwarenessOfCopyright-2002.translist" --> 10 <!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> 11 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/ph-breadcrumb.html" --> 12 <!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE--> 13 <!--#include virtual="/server/top-addendum.html" --> 14 <div class="article reduced-width"> 15 <h2>Public Awareness of Copyright, WIPO, June 2002</h2> 16 17 <address class="byline">by <a href="https://www.stallman.org/">Richard 18 Stallman</a></address> 19 20 <p>Geofrey Yu, Assistant Director General in charge of Copyright at 21 WIPO, said this in a paper “Public Awareness of 22 Copyright”, in June 2002. It is interesting that WIPO is 23 starting to find that the hypocrisy of describing a system of 24 restricting the public as a matter of “rights” is starting 25 to backfire on them.</p> 26 27 <blockquote> 28 <p>First the message. For it to go over well, I recommend 29 downplaying the reference to ‘rights’. the term itself is 30 perfectly acceptable, but in daily usage, it has a negative 31 connotation of rights without corresponding obligations and has a 32 [sic] ‘us’ against ‘them’ implication. This 33 won't do, therefore, as we want to win the public and consumer to our 34 side. Unfortunately, we cannot turn the clock back and find a new 35 term in place of ‘copyright’ but we can at least down-play 36 the term ‘rights’. The WIPO Performance and the 37 Phonograms Treaty (WPPT) is about the protection of performers and 38 phonogram producers. The word ‘right’ is happily missing 39 in their titles. And we should take out cure from them.</p> 40 41 <p>Within the copyright community such as we are today in this 42 room, it is fine to refer to artists, composers, performers and 43 enterprises as ‘rights holders’. But it is poor public 44 relations to employ the same terms when speaking to politicians, 45 consumers users and the public. With them, we must use the terms 46 devoid of legal jargon, terms, which are at least as neutral or better 47 still, inclusive,conveying meanings with which the public can 48 identify. So ‘rights holders’ should become painters, 49 writers, sculptors, musicians. 50 <span class="gnun-split"></span>What goes down well today with general 51 audiences are terms like ‘culture’, 52 ‘creativity’, ‘information’ , 53 ‘entertainment’, ‘cultural diversity’, 54 ‘cultural heritage’, ‘reward for creativity’, 55 ‘cultural enrichment’. And when we talk to youngsters, 56 terms like ‘fun’, ‘hip’, and 57 ‘cool’ will find an echo. We must find the right slogans 58 too. At WIPO we coined a slogan for a Geneva cultural festival that 59 we sponsored which went “Soutenons les artistes et respectons 60 leurs creations.”</p> 61 62 <p>In the same way, in our public outreach messages, it is better 63 to avoid terms like “copyright industries”. To call music 64 making and movie-making “copyright industries” is to cast 65 a business which is about people, imagination, fun, and creative 66 energy in a money-centred, legalistic light. It is like calling 67 car-making a patent industry. If we must use the term 68 “copyright” for brevity's sake, let us call the industries 69 “copyright-based industries”.</p> 70 71 <p>To sum up, what I would suggest is we down-play business and 72 economics when speaking to the public and stress more the human, 73 creative, inspirational angle.</p> 74 </blockquote> 75 76 <p>What can we see here? First, look how openly WIPO admits (among 77 friends) that it takes the side of the copyright holders. There isn't 78 even a fig leaf for the interests of anyone else, or even for the idea 79 that copyright must be required to benefit the public (by promoting 80 progress at a reasonable social cost).</p> 81 82 <p>Another is that the irony that the term “Intellectual 83 Property Rights” was adopted by the monopoly holders, precisely 84 so that they could present their privileges as rights that could not 85 be denied. The idea that they might have obligations as well as 86 rights, or that their power might be limited, is supposed to be 87 unthinkable. And who would ever believe that the music and movie 88 factories were “money-centred and legalistic”?</p> 89 90 <p>If the hypocrisy of “intellectual property rights” is 91 starting to backfire on WIPO, this does not mean we should use that 92 term ourselves. If we did, we would be spreading WIPO-style 93 hypocrisy, whether we intended to or not.</p> 94 </div> 95 96 </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> 97 <!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> 98 <div id="footer" role="contentinfo"> 99 <div class="unprintable"> 100 101 <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to 102 <a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. 103 There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> 104 the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent 105 to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> 106 107 <p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, 108 replace it with the translation of these two: 109 110 We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality 111 translations. 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