Press Release
Lawmakers must work with consumers, or risk further global copyright protests
23 Apr 2012
- Fourth annual rating of national IP law shows
'entrenched anti-consumer bias'
- Global outcry over copyright enforcement exposes
out-of-touch legislation
Consumers International (CI)[1] is calling
on copyright holders and intellectual property (IP) legislators to
work with consumers, not against them, to avoid future mass
protests over the right to access the internet without
interference.
The call comes as CI publishes its fourth annual IP
Watchlist[2]; an
international review and rating scorecard of IP legislation around
the world. For the fourth year running the IP Watchlist
reveals an entrenched anti-consumer bias among IP laws, which
continues to serve the narrow interests of multi-national copyright
holders from the music, film and publishing industries.
Of the 30 countries[3] rated in this year's
report, none scored higher than an overall 'B' grade. Most scoring
particularly badly in terms of draconian enforcement practices and
restrictions on freedom for consumers to share and transfer legally
purchased digital content.
On publishing this year's IP Watchlist, CI warns
governments that the worldwide anti-copyright demonstrations seen
in January and February 2012 (which included online protests by
Google and Wikipedia, and demonstrations in Washington and several
EU cities), could occur again unless consumer concerns are
addressed in proposed IP legislation.
CI believes that the realities of consumer activity in the
digital age mean copyright legislation is now a mainstream consumer
policy issue. As such, the protests against EU and US laws to
further restrict the public's use of digital content could have
been avoided if consumer rights organisations and open access
groups had been appropriately consulted.
Jeremy Malcolm, Senior Policy Officer at Consumers International
said:
"Consumers International's IP Watchlist should be read by
any lawmaker wondering how we reached such a crisis over ACTA and
SOPA earlier this year and where such protests may likely crop up
again. Our assessment shows that an entrenched anti-consumer bias
continues to pervade IP legislation, and, if this goes unchecked,
we are likely to see more protests over laws that do not reflect
the legitimate rights and widespread practices of consumers in the
digital age."
Notes to Editors
[1] Consumers International (CI) is the
only independent global campaigning voice for consumers. With over
220 member organisations in 115 countries, we are building a
powerful international consumer movement to help protect and
empower consumers everywhere. For more information, visit
www.consumersinternational.org
[2] Consumers International's IP
Watchlist 2012 is a survey of the copyright laws and enforcement
practices of 30 countries. It is part of CI's Access to Knowledge
programme - http://A2Knetwork.org
Forty-nine criteria were developed by a panel of IP experts, who
weighted each of the criteria to account for its relative
importance to consumers. Reports were then completed for the
30 countries in a collaborative effort by CI's member organisations
and partners worldwide.
[3] Thirty countries took part in the IP
Watchlist 2012 survey. The top five countries for consumer-friendly
IP legislation were Israel, Indonesia, India, New Zealand, and the
United States. The bottom five countries were Jordan, Argentina,
United Kingdom, Thailand, and Brazil.
For full list of countries and their ratings download a copy of
the IP Watchlist 2012 at http://A2Knetwork.org/watchlist
comments powered by