The rapid evolution of knowledge societies continues to provide new means for achieving progress in all sectors of work and life through the increasing use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as computers and networks. However, while ICTs have greatly facilitated the movement and handling of data, the process of generating and validating information and knowledge remains essentially one of human creativity. While access to the information highways themselves is still a real problem in many countries, questions of access to scientific and development data and information in the digital world, including questions of intellectual property rights, are attracting growing debate.
Science and education are at the very centre of debates on the challenges and opportunities of knowledge societies. We face a paradox, however. On the one hand, the accelerating spread of the Internet and new opportunities for free or low-cost publishing are generating real benefits. On the other hand, the new economic and technological environment is raising concerns about the erosion of access to certain information and knowledge whose free sharing facilitated scientific research and education in past decades.
The UNESCO's approach to addressing these concerns is stressed by two fundamentals, which govern its action. First, in UNESCO's view, the concept of "knowledge societies" is preferable to that of "the information society" because it better captures the complexity and dynamism of the changes taking place. The knowledge in question is important not only for economic growth but also for empowering and developing all parts of society. Thus, the role of new ICTs extends to human development more generally and therefore to such matters as intellectual cooperation, lifelong learning and basic human values and rights.
Second, most developing countries have thus far been unable to take full advantage of the advances offered by new ICTs in terms of access to scientific and technological information and learning opportunities, at least relative to the situation in the industrialized countries - the so-called "digital divide".
If knowledge societies capable of generating new knowledge in a cumulative, cooperative and inclusive process are to be created, they need to be based on a foundation of shared principles, particularly that of equitable access to education and knowledge. National policies, supported by international frameworks, can be a tool to facilitate access for all to essential information.
A key component of such frameworks and policies is the work of the United Nations system, under the leadership of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), to develop balanced and consistent international standards for copyright and neighboring rights as exemplified in the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT) adopted in 1996. UNESCO's policy is to encourage and assist Member States to promote access to information and knowledge for the progress of science and the diffusion of education, keeping in mind the necessity of rigorous conformity with international conventions on intellectual property.
It is in this spirit that UNESCO has been working, following a directive of its General Conference in 1997, to elaborate a Draft Recommendation concerning the Promotion and Use of Multilingualism and Universal Access to Cyberspace. When submitted to the General Conference at its last session two years ago, no consensus was forthcoming.
The revised Draft Recommendation will be considered by the General Conference at its 32nd session in the autumn, and it will then be presented as a contribution of UNESCO to the first World Summit on the Information Society to be held in Geneva in December 2003. Two of the four main sections of the proposed Draft Recommendation - "development of public domain content" and "reaffirming the equitable balance between the interests of rights-holders and the public interest" - bear directly on the themes of this Symposium.
Public domain information is publicly accessible information, the use of which does not infringe any legal right, or any obligation of confidentiality. It thus refers to the realm of all works or objects of related rights, which can be exploited by everybody without any authorization. Thus, the UNESCO Draft Recommendation encourages Member States to "recognize and enact the right of universal online access to public and government-held records" and to "identify and promote repositories of information and knowledge in the public domain and make them available to all".
Open access and voluntary authorizations. The public domain principle can be conceptually extended by the assimilation of "open access" information made freely available by its rights-holders without cost. One well-known example of open access is the open source software license by which computer programs are distributed free of charge by their authors for exploitation and cooperative development. Another is the vast amount of documentation produced and made available free of charge by the United Nations and its specialized agencies. Yet another is the movement of educational institutions around the world to provide their educational resources on the Internet free of charge for non-commercial usage, typified by the OpenCourseWare project of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The UNESCO Draft Recommendation urges Member States and international organizations to encourage open access solutions, and UNESCO itself is strongly committed to promoting information-sharing in education, the sciences and culture, and to disseminating information and software for development under open access conditions.
Access to commercially published information, which is of great importance to science, is a different one. It is to be noted that many publishers are interested in providing their works electronically under preferential conditions for science and education, particularly to users in developing countries, provided their copyright is strictly respected. UNESCO is looking carefully at ways to promote this type of initiative; for example, through model frameworks of voluntary permissions by which publishers and other rights-holders could assign specific rights to users in developing countries, either definitively or on a limited time basis.
Provisions for a fair balance of interests in the use of copyrighted works in the digital environment. This refers to the limitations and exceptions to copyright and related rights protection which are authorized in national legislation - as required in the two WIPO treaties mentioned earlier - provided that they are applied only in certain special cases which do not conflict with normal exploitation of the work and do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of rights-holders. Such provisions for equitable use in the public interest, which vary from country to country and are sometimes called "fair use", "fair dealing" or "limitations and exceptions authorized by the law" in specific legal systems, typically provide for exceptional free reproduction of copyrighted information for such uses as education, research, library services, journalism and access for disabled persons. These equitable use provisions, which in the pre-digital world made possible the public library, are potentially of even greater importance in the digital world. However, they also present greater risks to the legitimate interests of rights-holders given the ease with which digital information can be redistributed once released.
UNESCO recognizes the importance of equitable use provisions in national policies in education, the sciences and culture, particularly for the developing countries. We also recognize the importance of a fair balance between the interests of rights-holders and those of users when cultural works and performances are exploited in the digital environment in the fields of teaching, scientific research, libraries, dissemination of information and the needs of the visually impaired. In this regard, UNESCO, in close consultation with the concerned user and rights-holder communities, is carrying out an extensive study aimed at comparing the relevant provisions in existing national legislation with actual needs. Later on, a consensus-building process will be proposed regarding how best to address in practice any identified gaps, paying full respect to relevant provisions in WIPO and WTO treaties and without undermining copyright protection.
