A different kind of war : Internet databases and legal protection or how the strict intellectual property laws of the West threaten the developing countries’ information commons

Canellopoulou-Bottis, Maria A different kind of war : Internet databases and legal protection or how the strict intellectual property laws of the West threaten the developing countries’ information commons. International Review of Information Ethics, 2004. [Journal article (Paginated)]

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English abstract

This paper describes intellectual property legislation in the European Union, the US and the Draft Treaty on the legal protection of unoriginal databases, usually available in the Internet. I argue that this type of legislation, if enforced upon developing countries and countries in transition through international "agreements", could in effect deprive them of their own information commons, their own public domain. With examples from China, India, Africa and Iceland, I argue that this deprivation in the case of developing countries is, morally, equal to a virtual war against them by the West, wholly unjustified and dangerous-an example of virtual imperialism.

Item type:	Journal article (Paginated)
Keywords:	Legal protection, databases, intellectual property, developing countries
Subjects:	H. Information sources, supports, channels. > HL. Databases and database Networking. E. Publishing and legal issues. > ED. Intellectual property: author's rights, ownership, copyright, copyleft, open access. E. Publishing and legal issues. > EE. Intellectual freedom.
Depositing user:	Giannis Tsakonas
Date deposited:	15 Feb 2008
Last modified:	02 Oct 2014 12:10
URI:	http://hdl.handle.net/10760/11117

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