Hi: I hope this gets widespread publicity. I mean, widespread! Required reading for CARP, RIAA, Congress, Disney. Every one of them should be required to respond to each essay. Then, we hang 'em by their toes. Thanks, Tom http://www.studioforrecording.org/ http://www.ibiblio.org/studioforrecording/ http://renotahoe.pm.org/ On Friday 26 April 2002 09:15, Jon O. wrote:

----- Forwarded message from Alan Story -----

Reply-To: From: "Alan Story" Subject: WIPOUT ANNOUNCES CONTEST WINNERS Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 09:34:43 +0100

Press release from WIPOUT contact@wipout.net

26 April 2002 www.wipout.net

WIPOUT ANNOUNCES ITS CONTEST WINNERS

WIPOUT, the international intellectual property counter-essay contest, today announces its eleven winners on the day that has been tagged “World Intellectual Property Day” by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).

The winners, selected by an international panel of judges, live in six countries across the globe and submitted essays in four different languages: English, French, German, and Spanish. They are named below and are also available on the WIPOUT web site at: www.wipout.net

“The obvious interest in the counter-essay contest and the high quality of the entries show that a growing number of people are dissenting from WIPO’s dangerous stance that more and more extensive protection of more and more forms of intellectual property is a good thing,” the WIPOUT co-chairs stated today.

A total of 77 essays were submitted from 18 countries in response to the question: WHAT DOES INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MEAN TO YOU IN YOUR DAILY LIFE?

Earlier in 2001, WIPO, a United Nations organisation, had set up an essay contest that asked the same question. But WIPOUT organisers decided that a WIPO-sponsored contest would fail to appreciate the damage that the over-protection of intellectual property is doing to education, health care, the environment, and economic security for millions around the globe.

As Noam Chomsky, one of the more than 50 individuals and groups who endorsed WIPOUT said, this counter contest reminds people that “this harsh regime [of intellectual property rights] is designed to grant multinational corporations control over the technology of the future…it really is a scandal.” (The complete list of contest endorsers can be found at: http://www.wipout.net/endorsers.html ).

All of the 77 essays submitted, including the winning essays, are available on the WIPOUT site, www.wipout.net .The essays to WIPOUT came from the USA, UK, Republic of South Africa, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Japan, Australia, Greece, Russian Federation, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Netherlands, New Zealand, France, People's Republic of China and Bulgaria.

Among other issues, the 77 essays reveal:

- how illiterate persons in South Africa are required to pay copyright royalty fees if they wish to learn to read…and hence don’t get the opportunity. - how the conductor of a volunteer church choir in the United States could not lead his choir in a proper public performance, again because of copyright restrictions; - how drug patents are blocking access to desperately needed anti HIV/AIDS drugs…and again, how copyright royalties are charged for anti-HIV health materials; - how the TRIPS agreement is turning into a cruel hoax for countries of the South; - how IP laws are transforming the Internet into a restrictive, user-pay experience. - how the patenting of plants and genes is doing great damages to the interests of farmers and consumers.

Among the contributions are poems, drawings, short stories, fictional IP “nightmare scenarios” of coming years, calls to action, parodies, historical explorations, and theoretical critiques of intellectual property.

Each of the winners will receive a small financial prize from the WIPOUT prize fund that was created primarily through a generous donation from the Center for the Public Domain in the United States.

“ Our small group of volunteers hardly has the financial or publicity resources of WIPO, which is housed in palatial head offices beside Lake Geneva in Switzerland, and so we think it was a good accomplishment to get 50% of number of essays that WIPO’s contest received.” WIPO is also announcing its essay contest winners today.

WIPOUT is an international organisation consisting of academics, artists, musicians and other activists. Future projects and programmes are now under discussion.

The WIPOUT contest started on 4 September 2001 and concluded on 15 March 2002.

Today WIPOUT celebrates the winners, but the competitive aspect of the contest was always secondary to the purpose of giving a platform to the voices who disagree with the constant expansion of intellectual property protection.

NAMES OF WIPOUT CONTEST WINNERS, TITLES OF THEIR ESSAYS, AND THEIR LOCATION (THE NAMES ARE LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER.)

NAMES OF WIPOUT CONTEST WINNERS, TITLES OF THEIR ESSAYS, AND THEIR LOCATION (THE NAMES ARE LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER.)

ENGLISH-LANGUAGE WINNERS

John Cahir, ON CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AND POLITICAL ACTION, London, United Kingdom. http://www.wipout.net/essays/0113cahir.htm

Jason Holt, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AFFECTS MY LIFE, Provo, Utah, United States of America. http://www.wipout.net/essays/0216holt.htm

Eddan Elizafon Katz, MY FIRST SEVEN DAYS ON THE INTERNET, Oakland, California, United States of America. http://www.wipout.net/essays/0315katz.htm

Vijaya Kumar, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS – AN OBSTACLE TO DEVELOPMENT?, Dangolia, Kandy, Sri Lanka. http://www.wipout.net/essays/0314kumar.htm

Denise Nicholson, DOES COPYRIGHT HAVE ANY SIGNIFANCE IN THE LIVES OF ILLITERATE OR VISUALLY-IMPAIRED PERSONS?, Johannesburg, South Africa.http://www.wipout.net/essays/1128nicholson.htm

Percy Schmeiser, GENETIC CONTAMINATION AND FARMERS’ RIGHTS, Bruno, Saskatchewan, Canada. http://www.wipout.net/essays/0904schmeiser.htm

Louise Szente, THE CROW AND THE OWL, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. http://www.wipout.net/essays/1112szente.htm

Philip Tagg, COPYRIGHT VS. THE DEMOCRATIC RIGHT TO KNOW, Liverpool, United Kingdom. http://www.wipout.net/essays/1112tagg.htm

FRENCH-LANGUAGE WINNER

Alexandre Pirsch, ANTHROPOLOGIE ET DROITS D'AUTEUR: (D)ÉCRIRE L'AUTRE ET LE (DÉ)POSSÉDER (ANTHROPOLOGY AND COPYRIGHT: HOW "WRITING" CAN DEPRIVE THE OTHER OF HIS/HER RIGHTS.) Montreal, Quebec, Canada. http://www.wipout.net/essays/0315pirsch.htm

GERMAN-LANGUAGE WINNER

Alesch Staehelin, SUCHE NACH BILLIGEN AIDS-MEDIKAMENTEN (THE SEARCH FOR CHEAP AIDS DRUGS ) Venice, California, United States. http://www.wipout.net/essays/0310staehelin.htm

SPANISH-LANGUAGE WINNER Juan Mateos Garcia, DERECHOS DE PROPIEDAD INTELECTUAL Y ESPACIOS DE INFORMACIÓN PÚBLICA (INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND THE INFORMATION COMMONS ), Salamanca, Spain. http://www.wipout.net/essays/1012garcia.htm

NOTE TO NEWS EDITORS:

1. More details of the contest are available on the Wipout website at: www.wipout.net

2. If you would like to arrange an interview or have further questions about WIPOUT, here are the persons to contact:

IN THE UNITED KINGDOM -

Alan Story Dr Lee Marshall Kent Law School Department of Sociology University of Kent University College Worcester Canterbury Henwick Grove Kent CT2 7NS Worcester WR2 6AJ 44 (0)1227 823316 44 (0)1905 855312 a.c.story@ukc.ac.uk l.marshall@worc.ac.uk

IN THE UNITED STATES :

Debora Halbert Associate Professor of Political Science Otterbein College Dept. of History and Political Science Westerville OH 43081 (614) 823-1559 DHalbert@otterbein.edu

IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

Brian Martin Science, Technology & Society University of Wollongong, NSW 2522 Australia phone +61-2-4221 3763 work, fax +61-2-4221 3452 brian_martin@uow.edu.au

3. Details of the WIPO contest can be found at: http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/alert/2001/ma03rev.htm

Press release issued by WIPOUT, The Intellectual Property Counter Essay Contest contact@wipout.net

Alan Story WIPOUT contact@wipout.net

----- End forwarded message ----- _______________________________________________

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