International Copyright and Access to Scientific Knowledge

• In Event: Policy Approaches to Access and Use of Information

Abstract

The Berne Convention, founded in 1886, provides the foundation stone of international copyright law. First, the Berne Convention defined scientific and medical works as subject to copyright regulation. Second, strong exceptions were carved out in the Berne Convention for scientific and medical works at its founding. This was done at the instigation of one of the least powerful states involved in the establishment of the convention: Haiti. Third, despite such initial recognition of scientific and medical exceptions, a long-term tendency to reduce these exceptions has been apparent in the development of international copyright norms since 1886. The recent Access to Knowledge and Open Access movements have not strongly altered the ideology of increasingly strong copyright protection in scientific works at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which is now the secretariat of the Berne Convention and the WIPO Copyright Treaties.

Author

• Sara Bannerman, McMaster University