Illuminating the impact of intellectual property law on innovation

Christina’s terrific piece on Copyright and Glee looks at IP law’s impact on cultural participation. But what about the impact of IP on access to new technologies?
I’d like to take that up as the topic of my post, through a look at the little-known legal life of the light bulb.
More than a century after its [...]

ISP Fellows featured in “Why Open Video?”

On the same weekend as the ISP’s conference, A2K4: Access to Knowledge and Human Rights, the Free Culture X conference was taking place in Washington DC. As part of that event, they released Tim Kothran’s great ten-minute educational movie entitled “Why Open Video?”

Download link: [OGG] [MP4]

Access to Knowledge and Human Rights Conference

February 11-13, 2010 at Yale Law School
This conference seeks to lay the groundwork – conceptual and strategic – to build bridges between the A2K and human rights communities pursuing common goals of promoting greater access to knowledge, culture, technology and tools for innovation worldwide.

Screening & Discussion: “In the Family”

Thursday, Feb. 11 @ 6:30 p.m. — Room 129 at Yale Law School

Sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union Women’s Rights Project, the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, and the YLS Law and Health Initiative.

A2K4: Welcome and Opening Remarks

Yale Law School’s fourth major conference on access to knowledge, A2K4: Access to Knowledge and Human Rights, was kicked off by professor Jack Balkin, founder of the Yale Information Society Project.
Blogging, video, and discussion of the conference may be followed at http://yaleisp.org. The best link for accessing these materials is: http://yaleisp.org/2010/02/a2k4main.

A2K4 Panel I: Perspectives on Access to Knowledge and Human Rights

To date, the intersection between intellectual property and human rights has been analyzed from several perspectives. Some claim that intellectual property is a human right; others object that IP protection conflicts with efforts to realize the rights to health, food, education, or free expression. A consensus perspective on how to view the intersection [...]

A2K4 Panel II: Technologies of Dissent: Information and Expression in a Digital World

This panel explores A2K issues relevant to classic civil and political rights, particularly freedom of expression.
Political expression and dissent are increasingly exercised online, through technologies ranging from social networking tools, blogs, email, and cell phones to more concealed and complex technical approaches such as the use of distributed denial of service attacks to disrupt [...]

A2K4 Panel III. The Right to Health: Promoting Innovation and Equity

International human rights treaties, as well as domestic constitutions in many countries, recognize a universal right to the highest attainable standard of health, which includes a claim to effective and equitable access to health care. Realization of this right guarantee, however, has been complicated by the high costs of health care, in the context of [...]

A2K4 Panel IV: Right to Education: Realizing the Potential Digital Tools

International human rights instruments recognize a right to education. Within this concept, primary education should be “universal, free and compulsory.” Opportunities for secondary and higher education, however, are recognized to be contingent upon the resources available to states. This panel explores how the power of digital technologies, social networking and peer production may be leveraged [...]

A2K4 Panel V: Freedom to Innovate: Knowledge, Technology, Culture

We live in an age of decentralized innovation in which civil liberties and cultural freedom depend on the freedom to innovate and share innovations with others. Increasingly, cultural freedom, access to knowledge, and freedom of expression depend on the ability of entrepreneurs to create new tools for sharing, producing, and distributing content. Increasingly, new ideas [...]

A2K4 Panel VI: The Right to Science and Culture: Access and Participation

Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes the right of everyone to take part in cultural life, and to share in the benefits of scientific progress. This “right to science and culture” has great relevance for access to knowledge issues, but is still in the early stages of development.
This panel will [...]

A2K4 Workshop: The Right to Read: Copyright and Access for Persons with Disabilities

This panel will discuss the proposal for a WIPO treaty for disabilities, as well as other topics concerning the right to read for persons with disabilities.

A2K4 Workshop: The Right to Development and the WIPO Development Agenda

Organized by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD)

The right to development (RTD), proclaimed in 1986, is “an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and [...]

keep looking »
  • Flickr Photos

    img_2123.jpg

    img_2121.jpg

    img_2119.jpg

    IMAG0169.jpg

    IMAG0167.jpg

    James Love

    Three 'right to science and culture' panelists



    Kyle Stone

    Lea Shaver

    More Photos
  • A2K4 Update

    Thanks to all the sponsors, partners, volunteers, and participants who made A2K4 such an enormous success!

    Video is now online for all plenary panels. Workshops will follow soon, as well as short video interviews.

    To access videos, summaries, and additional resources, please visit the blog posts for each panel, indexed at:

    http://yaleisp.org/2010/02/a2k4main/

  • Recent Posts