When I read articles like this I get a very heavy feeling. I translate this message from the WTO as thus:
We the big rich countries of the world that “own” 90% of the worlds
“Intellectual Property” (using systems we designed and global committees we
run) are going to be very nice and give you little-countries who don’t own
very much in our system a chance to put into place better mechanisms to pay
us loads of money. Did we mention how nice we are?
Most countries in the world don’t “own” very much “IP”, where ownership is
defined by this set of values shaped by a very small number of countries in
the world. This ownership paradigm being forced on the world is not good for
anyone but that minority of countries that own the majority of IP. Australia
wouldn’t come into the “least-developed” countries specified here, but even
we are net IP importers according to this system, and it does a net IP
importer no good to their own economy or society to increase the protections
on IP. All it does is raise the amount of money that goes directly overseas
and limit the local industries.
Some day, there will be enough resistance to such systems for people to
realise that there are other ways. Having a monopoly on an idea for a period
of time can certainly be an incentive for companies to create new stuff, but
when a huge proportion of money going into, for instance cancer research, is
simply paying for the legal fees to maintain “ownership”, then how much are
we really progressing? When the monopoly granted to IT companies for
“inventions” are longer than the entire life of the IT industry, you have to
wonder how that industry can continue to move forward. When the entire world
is having to pay homage to the “IP” created in a handful of countries rather
than being able to get on with creating their own, how much are we shackling
the world?
Please note, I’m not expressely against some way to build a business on what
you create, be that software, literature, or any other such work. My issue is
that I think it has gone too far. It seems a little ludicrous, most of the
world propping up the economies of a few countries based on systems those
countries made, got a foothold in and then started pushing onto the rest of the
world. Particularly when taking on these systems can often had a negative
impact on the local industries of countries new to that system.