Intellectual Property Rights and Communications in Asia: Conflicting Traditions

This volume explores the contested nature of the ownership of knowledge and access to it in Asia. It offers insights into solving some of the key issues related to intellectual property (IP) and communication in the contemporary world. With the ownership of IP becoming a core feature of media/information industries and state policy, issues related to access to knowledge and its use have become a matter of critical concern. While trade regimes, the state and the core cultural and information industries have begun to advocate greater scope for a variety of knowledge enclosures, civil society is increasingly arguing for a people-centered vision of knowledge futures. This vision includes the need for equity-based and flexible licensing regimes; the legitimacy of local solutions to IP related issues; support for cultural diversity; and access to knowledge based on need rather than the ability to pay for knowledge. This book explores these important issues, supported by case studies from the Asian region. It presents an extensive picture of a dynamic and complex process that reveals some of the dilemmas of the digital age.

Table of Contents:
Introduction - Pradip Thomas and Jan Servaes The Emerging Information Economy - Roberto Verzola An Overview United States′ Trade Policy and the Reshaping of Intellectual Property Rights Protection in the APEC Region - Stephen D McDowell and Moonki Hong Copyright and the Global Good? An Examination of `the Public Interest′ in International Copyright Regimes - Sara Bannerman Copyright, Competition Policy and Prevention of Monopolistic Abuses in the TRIPS Agreement - Daya Shanker Indigenous Knowledge in the Age of New Technologies - Levi Obijiofor Whose Knowledge? Indigenous Knowledge and Intellectual Property Rights - Kamal Puri The Interface Learning to Love the Market - Lucy Montgomery and Michael Keane Copyright, Culture and China China′s Efforts for International Cooperation in Copyright Protection - Yonghua Zhang Culture, Communication and the Meaning of Intellectual Property Rights in South Asia - Binod C Agrawal A Critical Analysis Uncommon Futures - Pradip Thomas Interpreting IP Contestations in India Australian Sport, Property Rights and the Emerging Information Monopoly - Rhonda Breit Creative Commons - Brian Fitzgerald Accessing, Negotiating and Remixing Online Content Alternative Intellectual Property Regimes in the Global Creative Economy - Terry Flew, Greg Hearn and Susanna Leisten IPR and Communications - Pradip Thomas and Jan Servaes Markets, Communities and the Public Domain

About the Author :
Jan Servaes (Ph.D., 1987, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium) is Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (USA), Editor-in-Chief of Communication for Development and Social Change: A Global Journal (Hampton Press), Associate Editor of Telematics and Informatics: An International Journal on Telecommunications and Internet Technology (Elsevier), Editor of the Southbound Book Series Communication for Development and Social Change, and Editor of the Hampton Book Series Communication, Globalization and Cultural Identity. He chaired the Scientific Committee for the World Congress on Communication for Development (Rome, 25–27 October 2006), organized by the World Bank, FAO and the Communication Initiative. Servaes has taught International Communication and Development Communication in Australia (Brisbane), Belgium (Brussels and Antwerp), the USA (Cornell), the Netherlands (Nijmegen) and Thailand (Thammasat, Bangkok). He has been President of the European Consortium for Communications Research (ECCR, www.eccr.info) and Vice-President of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR, www.iamcr.net), in charge of Academic Publications and Research, from 2000 to 2004. Servaes has undertaken research, development, and advisory work around the world and is known as the author of journal articles and books on such topics as international and development communication; ICT and media policies; intercultural communication and language; participation and social change; and human rights and conflict management.

Review :
The editors have to be given full credit for putting together such analytical and informative essays on a subject that is of immense relevance to the economic wars that are raging in the world today.