Blacked out & hacked

Suddenly, the cyber world knows SOPA, or at least something about it. SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act, the latest initiative by the US to stop theft of intellectual property rights (IPRs), primarily the illegal downloading of music, films and games. SOPA is in the House of Representatives, and it has an equally evil twin in the Senate, PIPA or Protection of IP Act.

Small brother is watching you

In one sense it was funny—if you were not affected that is. Customers using the Internet services of Reliance Communications (RC) and some other services found their access to file-sharing websites blocked last month. When a friend went to one such site, Megaupload.com, he was outraged to find that it had been blocked. The message on the site said: “This site has been blocked.” At the bottom of the screen, the censor proudly proclaimed, “Copyright Reliance Entertainment (RE). All Rights Reserved”. Was it the blocked page that Reliance Entertainment was copyrighting as its own intellectual property?

What Durban did not discuss

Debate on the rights and wrongs of intellectual property rights (IPRs) always gets stuck on a fundamental question. Would there be any incentive to invent and create without the incentive of IPRs such as patents and copyright? The conventional view is that without the reward of IPRs there would be no investment in researching and developing new technology. The counterview is that IPRs create a barrier to access and actually stifle innovation.

Any cheers for Doha pact?

Last month, the chiefs of the big three Ws, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), met in Geneva to mark—one is reluctant to use the word celebrate—a special anniversary. Ten years ago, on November 14, 2001, developing countries had wrested a historic agreement at the fourth ministerial session of WTO in Doha. The Declaration on the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) and Public Health adopted in the Qatari capital was a political milestone as it marked the first time developing countries were able to wrest a concession in global trade negotiations.

DRUG AFFORDABILITY TEST

Feisty is what Natco Pharma is. The medium-sized company (turnover: Rs 350 crore) is seldom out of the news for what appears to be a chronic tendency to fight patents on expensive life-saving drugs. Since 2003 when it hit the headlines for challenging Swiss drug giant Novartis’s patent for the life-saving Glivec cancer medication, the Hyderabad-based company has tried several ploys to break patents on blockbuster drugs and produce its generic versions.

WHO OWNS OUR VEGGIES?

A so-called super broccoli, which has been developed by a British company with two to three times the level of glucoraphanin than the normal broccoli, has been given a European patent. And so has a tomato with reduced fruit water content. Both were developed using conventional cross-breeding methods and no genetic engineering was involved. Thereby, hangs a worrying issue.

No climate for cleantech

What is the outlook for developing countries in getting clean energy technologies transferred to them at a reasonable fee? Will intellectual property rights (IPR) over green technology to mitigate the impact of climate change prove to be a tough barrier? Can poor nations hope to compete with the developed world in bringing such technology to the market? A clear idea of the challenges that lie ahead was available in a speech made by a top American official at a recent conference on clean energy policy in the US, points that have a major bearing on the green future of the developing world. Reproduced below are some of the key points enunciated by Acting Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank.

Politics of the Internet

Five years ago, the World Summit on the Information Society (wsis) established the Internet Governance Forum (igf) with somewhat ambitious goals. It would serve as a global platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue on “key elements of Internet governance in order to foster the sustainability, robustness, security, stability and development of the Internet”.

NCD battle starts now

Historic it may be—even if watered down. The unanimous adoption of a “political declaration” by the UN on the need to fight the rising tide of non-communicable diseases (NCD) is a singular development and, as analysts have been reminding us, it is only the second time a health issue has been debated at a special meeting of the General Assembly. The first was when it pledged to take on AIDS a decade ago.

The fine line for judges

Last week just as Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis was set to begin its final arguments in the Supreme Court against the rejection of a patent for its cancer drug Glivec (see ‘Evergreen Novartis’, Down To Earth, September 1-15) there were two swift and stunning developments. A letter was written by five activists complaining to the ministers of law, commerce, health and family welfare about Justice Dalveer Bhandari, one of two judges hearing the case.