WIPO Meeting Affair

On July 7, 2003 a group of well known scientists and technologists organized by James Love of the Consumer Project on Technology sent a letter to Kamil Idris, director-general of the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) suggesting a meeting to examine "open" models of scientific and technological creation. We have a copy of the txt version of the letter on our site. (You can find the original and a pdf version on the CPT site.)

Francis Curry, WIPO assistant director-general, told Nature magazine that his organization welcomed the idea. The reply was published in Nature 424, 118, 2003 and unfortunately requires subscription. The text of the article was posted on the ip-health mailing list.

It appears that Microsoft funded Business Software Alliance applied pressure to the US government which in turn pressured WIPO to cancel the meeting. We have here yet another case of misguided US government action in favour of one sector of the US economy against another in clear support of an ideological agenda.

WIPO Pressured to Kill Meeting on Open Source
Slashdot discussion, August 22, 2003.

The quiet war over open-source
By Jonathan Krim / The Washington Post, Friday, August 22, 2003.

the extremists in power
An entry in Lawrence Lessig's blog. Lessig was one of the co-signers of the WIPO letter.

Follow up:

• James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
• Emery Simon, Business Software Alliance
• Lois Boland, director of international relations for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

We have separate pages for:

• Public Goods
• Open Source United Nations
• Microsoft Against Open Source
• ProgrammersWithoutFrontiers (PWF)
• Open Source Third World Development

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