Updates
in cra-briefings38 · September 15, 2006
LAUNCH OF A MUSIC “TRADING” SERVICE
Bill Nguyen is the founder of Lala.com, a music “trading” service that allows music fans to trade their CD’s with other interested fans. Though Lala encourages the trading of music, much like a used CD store, it does not condone piracy and will not allow pirated works to be traded over its network. The person who receives the CD pays the fee of $1.75 US. Of this, the company plans to allocate $0.75 for shipping, $0.80 for operating overhead with the remaining $0.20 profit going to the musicians whose works are traded. These monies will be paid out through a charity called the Z Foundation which is basing its plan on the Wiki model, so that the Z Foundation, fans and other artists will decide who gets paid under the system. For more information on this service see www.lala.com or www.reuters.com.
PIRACY AN ISSUE ON THE WIPO AGENDA
WIPO’s advisory committee on enforcement met in Geneva from May 15 to 19, 2006. At the meeting, Dr. Kamil Idris, Director General of WIPO stressed that member nations should not underestimate the negative impact of counterfeiting and piracy on national and international economies. Participants agreed that there was a need for closer international co-operation as nations fight piracy within and across their boarders. It was determined that the next session of the Advisory Committee on Enforcement should consider cooperation on at international, regional and national levels in relation to the enforcement of intellectual property laws. More information on these meetings can be found in WIPO’s press release 2006/447.
TRADITIONAL CULTURAL EXPRESSION and TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE
The 9th session of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property, Traditional Cultural Expression, Traditional Knowledge and Genetic Resources took place on April 24-28. The papers and documents related to this session are now available on the WIPO website at wipo.int/tk/en. See also issue #37 of CRA News for Greg Young-Ing’s report on this meeting.