PrepCom3 : Civil Society Statement
Presentation : Plenary Session - September 2003
A joint Statement by the Working Group on
Scientific Information
URL: http://www.wsis-si.org
and
by the Working Group on
Patents,Copyrights, Trademarks (P.C.T)
URL: http://www.wsis-pct.org
by Francis Muguet [email protected]
On behalf of the two working groups on scientific information,
and Patents,Copyrights, Trademarks matters, we would like to comment
on section 30 a) of the Plan of Action that should be read as :
a) ensure that any legal regime on scientific and
educational data repositories, such as scientific databases,
scientific journals, archives and libraries, as well as teaching material,
guarantees full and open access
to works created by
research and educational ventures substantiallly
financed by public funds.
UN action may come as a reinforcement to the
activities of lawmaking national bodies and vice-versa.
For example, in the USA, works published by governement agencies
are not protected by copyright.
A bill (HR 2613) has been proposed that aims to enlarge
the scope of exclusion from copyright protection to scientific papers
published following research substantially funded by the federal governement.
Scientists are currently considering a similar legal action in the European Union.
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