*** please cross post widely, no restricted by copyright *** ----------------------------------------------------------- Press Release: The Copy/South Reader Response Project Launches on World IP Day For immediate release: Thursday, 26 April 2007 To mark World Intellectual Property Day (26 April), the Copy/South Research Group calls on you to take up its slogan --'Encouraging Creativity'-- and send in your creative thoughts and opinions on the role of copyright law and ideology in the countries of the global South. Our new project, the Copy/South Reader Response ( available at <http://www.copysouth.org > ) launches today as part of a global counter-celebration of this day and its deceitful slogan. We want to hear from you and find out whether you agree with the viewpoint of the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organisation that creativity is impossible without copyright laws -- and the more restrictive and punishing, the better. For our new project, readers of the Copy/South Dossier, which was published in May 2006 and contains more than 50 articles giving facts and views on the largely obstructive role of copyright law and ideology in countries of the global South, are asked to do TWO THINGS: 1) send in your comments on and criticisms of the 206-page Dossier. 2) send in examples of your own personal experiences with copyright in the global South, whether you are a librarian, an educator, a writer or musician, visually impaired, or a user of copyright-restricted materials. The comments that we receive will be posted on our open access reader response website. Feel free to give your views in any of these eight languages: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic, German, Italian, or Dutch (we hope to add additional languages in time). Keep your messages lively and to the point. As stated on its 26 April website, WIPO's day 'celebrates' the supposed 'link between intellectual property and creativity.' But WIPO makes no mention of how copyright law acts as the 'command and control' apparatus for global software, publishing, and broadcasting corporations such as Microsoft and Harper Collins or the more regional empire of Venezuelan broadcasting billionaire Gustavo Cisneros; or the empire of Mexican telephone billionaire Carlos Slim Heliu. Nor does it talk about how WIPO endorses such ruthless acts as forcing overworked local police agencies across the South to raid local schools to enforce corporate copyright interests. These are among the issues taken by the Dossier, which took 18 months to research and write, and has been distributed world-wide over the past eleven months. Our Dossier has won praise for its accessible explanations of some complicated issues and its plain speaking. Of course, the Dossier also has its critics as you will see if you read some of the initial responses posted on the website. To read more about the Copy/South Reader Response Project, go to: <http://www.copysouth.org/ > To download and read the Copy/South Dossier online (and find out how to receive a copy by post/mail), go to: < http://www.copysouth.org/ > To contact The Copy/South Research Group, send an e-mail to: < [log in to unmask] > We wait for your comments! The Copy/South Research Group < http://www.copysouth.org/ > -- Zapopan Muela for THE COPY/SOUTH READER RESPONSE PROJECT < http://www.copysouth.org/ > ---- Zapopan Martin Muela Meza, MLS SUNY-Buffalo, B.A. UANL-Mexico PhD candidate, Dept. of Information Studies University of Sheffield, UK <http://www.shef.ac.uk/is/research/groups/lib/people.html > Member of the Copy/South Research Group <http://www.copysouth.org > Co-Editor for Mexico of E-LIS: E-prints of Library and Information Science <http://eprints.rclis.org/staff.html#mx > Member of the international network In Defence of Knowledge and Culture for All <http://www.porlacultura.net/modules.php?name=Idiomas&pa=showpage&pid=4 > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com