Colombians: action needed to keep copyright curriculum sane

Carolina Botero of the Colombian Creative Commons project writes in to tell us about a new, rush-rush project to change the Colombian school curriculum to emphasise, a one-sided, protectionist view of copyright, without reference to the values to Columbian society arising from sharing, fair use, and the public domain. The clock is ticking, and Colombians need to get involved now before this becomes policy:

A comprehensive reading of the document suggests that the Colombian state is focusing its efforts and resources into developing our own version of "Captain Copyright" that will give educational recommendations for children, academics and public officials and will likely produce a surveillance state.
The document's main argument is that our country's intellectual property development relies solely on "protection and enforcement". Such a conclusion is based on the fact that the revenue for intellectual property related industries is higher in developed countries than in ours. The document has absolutely no references or background research, achievements and implications of recent approaches such as Free Software, Open Access, Open Educational Resources, Open Business, etc.

Link (Thanks, Carolina!)

Discussion

Take a look at this

#1 posted by certron , March 29, 2008 10:06 AM

How did the Colombian National Planning Department (DNP) get this maximalist copyright idea in their collective head? While it may look like a good idea when observing how other nations use their IP as wedges and hammers in trade negotiations, the end result tends to be that their own citizens get bullied around as well.

This is another example in my own personal theory of how democracies can be effectively subverted by a small group (sometimes as small as one person) pushing a directed agenda.

#2 posted by vaporlock , March 29, 2008 11:20 AM

A corrupt Right-Wing fanatic for a president also helps to push these agendas along. Never mind the 1.3 Billion in US "aid". They also consider spraying an "Agent Orange" type defoliant (Glyphosate) on the rainforest, a sensible idea in Columbia.

#3 posted by carobotero , March 29, 2008 4:51 PM

Actually the document drafts a whole strategy not just for Copyright but also for Industrial Property. It is a set of public policies, education being just one of them, but probably most important it states the basis for the creation of a Public Institutions Structure that should "surveill" for the "protection and enforcement" aspects of Copyright... so it is Super captain copyright!!

#4 posted by Wareq , March 29, 2008 5:54 PM

Colombia's #1 problem: intellectual property law.