Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) were originally instituted to encourage the creation and invention of public goods for the benefit of society by allowing creators and inventors to protect their intellectual property. However, IPR has become overly restrictive in recent times as corporate interests have led to an ever increasing demand for lock-down on rights.
The Shuttleworth Foundation supports initiatives that call for the establishment of national and global IPR regimes that seek an appropriate balance between encouraging innovation and benefiting society, the original purpose of creating the rights.
We live in a time when knowledge, rather than land or raw materials, is the basis of wealth and development. This has dramatically increased the importance and impact of copyright and patents, collectively referred to as intellectual property rights (IPR).
The ideal balance of rights, restriction and social utility may be achieved by approaching IPR as a set of rights for users as well as creators, instead of as a set of prohibitions with exceptions.
The rise of digital media makes it easy to copy and distribute creative work, increasing access to knowledge, lowering communication costs, and creating new business and education opportunities. This wave of change has disrupted many existing business models.
Certain corporate copyright holders from developed countries have responded to technological change by lobbying for increasingly restrictive laws to be passed and have, in many cases, succeeded in driving legislative change.
Locking down rights threatens the social contract underlying IPR by not allowing for sufficient social utility. The Shuttleworth Foundation is not against intellectual property rights, but rather supports opening-up rights for the benefit of society, while still offering sufficient IP protection for innovators and creators.
Copyright, patents, trademarks, design, know-how and trade secrets are each protected by a separate act in South African law. The Shuttleworth Foundation has already successfully contributed to the reasonable openness of trademarks, but pressing issues remain in the areas of copyright and patents, especially in the local context of looming software patent discussions.
The Foundation believes that it is both possible and vital to establish national and global IPR regimes that allow for the protection of rights of inventors and creators while allowing for the granting of fair use rights for society. The Foundation's core focus areas are most pressing issues lie copyright and patents and how these either facilitate or restrict access to knowledge. We seek to increase sustainable access to knowledge and innovation.
The Foundation encourages the use of open licences where appropriate. Open licences are based on existing copyright law, but ensure openness and re-usability. Open Source software and Open Education Resources use open licences.