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White Papers
"Access to Knowledge and the Right to Take Part in Cultural Life: Submission by the Information Society Project at Yale Law School to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights"
By Caterina Sganga and Lea Shaver
Article 15(1)(a) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognizes "the right of everyone to take part in cultural life." This paper argues that Article 15 establishes a human right of access to knowledge, and imposes legal obligations on States Parties to the ICESCR to provide exceptions and limitations to copyright, expand Internet access and take other measures to ensure access to knowledge.
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"Will the Development Agenda Remain Undeveloped? Process and Procedure in the WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property,"
By Eliot Pence
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Published in time for the Second Session Meetings of the WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP), this Yale ISP White Paper by Eliot Pence proposes a renewed focus on necessary procedural reforms as part of the work-plan for implementing the WIPO Development Agenda.
"Open Documents and Democracy: A Political Basis for Open Document Standards"
By Laura DeNardis and Eric Tam
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The Yale ISP White Paper "Open Documents and Democracy: A Political Basis for Open Document Standards," by Laura DeNardis and Eric Tam, employs democratic theory as a method of political and ethical inquiry into the implications of openness in information and communication standards.
"Common knowledge: How access to information and ideas can drive development."
By Rudy Kleysteuber, Christen Young, and Eddan Katz
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All human development is based on the acquisition, spread and use of knowledge.
Whether it is the know-how to produce life-saving medicines or the latest innovation in farm technology, access to knowledge can bring power and profitable returns. Unequal access, on the other hand, can create injustice - particularly when based on economic disparity.
This briefing outlines the main arguments supporting knowledge as a tool for development, focusing on the key sectors shaping and influencing people’s lives. It challenges journalists to get behind the jargon and encourage informed public debate around the issue.
"Model Language for Exceptions and Limitations to Copyright Concerning Access to Learning Materials in South Africa"
By William Baude, Julien Hofman, Eddan Katz, Katherine McDaniel, Andrew Rens and Chris Riley
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South Africa’s current copyright law, the apartheid-era Copyright Act of 1978, remains largely indifferent to development objectives such as increasing public access to educational materials. While it must comply with international copyright law, the Act fails to fully exploit the flexibilities available in the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO’s) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). In this article, we present proposed model language which could be used to incorporate exceptions and limitations to copyright into South African copyright law. We give provisions for fair use/fair dealing in education, adaptation of material for the disabled, and translations of material. Our proposed exceptions would greatly increase public access to learning materials while remaining within the boundaries of the “three-step test” of article 13 of TRIPS governing exceptions to copyright. A comparative analysis of other national copyright solutions is offered for each provision.
"Best Practices for Internet Standards Governance (2006)"
By Eddan Katz and Laura DeNardis
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This paper is a contribution to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), a new United Nations sponsored forum for multi-stakeholder Internet policy dialogue to convene in Athens, Greece, on October 30-November 2, 2006. Katz and DeNardis describe how Internet standards are a central apparatus of Internet governance with far reaching economic, political, and technical consequences. Despite the multi-stakeholder importance of standards, the mosaic of organizations involved in Internet standards setting exhibit disparate levels of participatory and informational openness and many do not adhere to principles of due process and consensus. This paper attempts to elevate the importance of Internet standards setting within the Internet governance context and proposes best practices in standards development based on the IGF's four thematic principles of openness, diversity, security, and access. Katz and DeNardis also propose the possibility that international governance bodies can help safeguard multi-stakeholder interests by developing a legitimating system of accreditation for standards setting organizations.
"Public Opinion and Freedom Of Speech (2006)"
By Marvin Ammori
| Article | Download the appendices |
This white paper addresses the relationship between public opinion about freedom of speech and the United States Supreme Court's First Amendment doctrines. The paper considers public opinion across a wide range of free speech controversies the Supreme Court has addressed in recent decades. The paper reaches two main conclusions:
(1) Public opinion and the Supreme Court's protection of free speech are connected over the long run in significant ways. Public opinion's influence on the Court seems more substantial and well-supported than the Court's influence on public opinion. While the public is not anti-speech in general, for certain types of speech (such as offensive speech or media speech), the public may be less speech-protective than the Court. As a result, public opinion may help undermine--or buttress--exiting speech protection for certain speech categories or during certain periods.
(2) The common assumption of a large discrepancy between individuals' abstract and specific support for freedom of speech appears inaccurate. The public in fact supports freedom of speech in ways largely consonant with existing free speech doctrine. Namely, the public seems most to value speech that it understands to promote an informed citizenry and democratic self-governance. Although the public would not protect every category of speech the Supreme Court protects, sometimes that is because it is often not clear to the public how protecting those categories furthers the underlying purposes of freedom of speech. Given these conclusions, the paper proposes educational initiatives to strengthen public support for freedom of speech. These initiatives aim to build on the public's existing commitments to free speech and show how protecting journalism and forms of dissident and unpopular speech would help contribute to democracy and self-governance, and thus serve the interests of ordinary citizens in the long run.
By Jack Balkin
By Nimrod Kozlovski
