consumer international global meeting on access to knowledge 21 and 22 april 2010, kuala lumpur –...
TRANSCRIPT
Consumer International Global Meeting on Access to Knowledge
21 and 22 April 2010, Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia
Access to Learning Materials and Knowledge in Egypt
Dr. Perihan Abou Zeid
The African Copyright and Access to Knowledge (ACA2K) project was
initiated in 2007 with the objective to probe the nexus between national
copyright environments and access to knowledge with respect to
educational and learning materials. Funded by the IDRC and Shuttleworth
foundation. More than 30 experts are engaged in the study which covers
eight African countries: Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique,
Senegal, South Africa and Uganda.
The ACA2K methodology can be briefed into two phases:
Research Phase: Doctrinal Analysis and Qualitative Analysis.
Policy Engagement and Dissemination Phase: Identifying key
stakeholders for disseminating the study findings.
B- A2K Environment in Egypt: Copyrights is organized and governed in Book 3 of the Intellectual
Property Rights Act number 182 for the year 2002.
Focus is mainly on industrial property specially patents.
Obvious lack of literature pertaining to Access to Knowledge
(A2K) regardless its importance to Egypt.
Launch of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Access to Knowledge
Platform.
The African Copyrights and Access to Knowledge study issued
last June 2009.
The “Access to Knowledge in Egypt” book in 2010. And the launch of the Access to Knowledge for Development Center at the American University in Cairo (A2K4D).
The launch of the first student society on A2K in Egypt at Pharos University in Alexandria (PUA-A2K).
1- Copyrights Holders’ Rights:
Moral Rights:
Moral rights are perpetual, inalienable, and imprescriptible.
Economic Rights:
The law prohibits any form of exploitation of the work without
obtaining the approval of the holder, such as: reproduction,
broadcasting, re-broadcasting, public performance, public
communication, translation, adaptation, rental, lending or making
the work available to the public in any manner. The duration of
protection is 50 years that starts from the death of the author.
A - Educational Purposes:
- The law numbers few E&L that are related to education such as:
1) Performance of the work to students within an educational
institution.
2) Reproducing short extracts from a work for teaching purposes
within the limits of the three step-test.
3) Reproduction for teaching purposes in educational institutes
provided that: reproduction is made once or at different separate
occasions; and the name of the author and the title of the work
are mentioned on each copy.
B- Photocopying for Personal Use:
Conditions:
a) Single copy.
b) For one’s exclusive personal use.
c) Does not hamper the normal exploitation of the work nor cause
undue prejudice to the legitimate interests of the author or
copyright-holders.
Practice:
Personal use exception is negatively affected with library
photocopying quota policies and borrowing bans.
There is general unawareness of the nature of this exception
among interviewed users stake holders (students, researchers
and librarians).
“Even if the personal use exception does not exist, I will remain
photocopying research materials since it’s the main mean to
access updated works’’.
The law allows translating the work to the Arabic language where
the author does not translate the protected work directly or
through a third party to Arabic within 3 years of the first publication
of the original or translated work. In such case the author’s right to
translate the work shall lapse.
D- Libraries and Archives:
The law permits documentation centres, archives and non-profit
libraries to make one single copy of a work in the following cases:
Reproduction is made upon a request made by a natural person
for using in study or research.
Reproduction is made for the purpose of preserving or substituting
an original copy.
The law does not tackle public lending rights.
.
E- People with Disability:
The law does not tackle or provide any special provisions
regarding people with disability such as the visually impaired. This
means that activities related to converting protected materials to
formats accessible to these individuals (e.g., Braille or audio
formats) can only be done with express permission of the rights-
holder.
The law allows compulsory licenses whether by reproducing or
translating the work. Compulsory licenses are restricted with
specific conditions:
a) Educational purposes;
b) Against payment of fair compensation;
c) License should not contradict with the normal exploitation of
the work and does not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate
interests of the author or the copyright-holders.
4- Public Domain:
The law requires obtaining a licence for any commercial or
professional exploitation of such works for fees that are set out in
the Regulations.
5- Parallel Imports:
Parallel imports of copyright protected materials are permitted
under Egyptian law without any restrictions where the copyright
owner undertakes to exploit or market his work in any state or
authorise a third party to do so.
Special rules govern the protection of computer programmes
(CPs) within the law.
Quotations from computer software must be used only for non-
commercial purposes or for the purpose of education or training.
The legitimate owner of a CP is allowed to make a single copy or
an adaptation provided it remains within the limits of the purpose
for which consent was initially granted, for archiving purposes or to
replace a lost, destroyed or invalid original copy.
Anti-circumvention provisions are included within the law.
Fines and imprisonment are the punishments for the
manufacturing, assembling or importing any device or tool or any
technology that aims to circumvent any technological protection
measures that include information and communication
technologies (ICTs).
• Encouraging the development of free and open source software (FOSS) as an important tool for maximizing access to software.
• Encouraging authoring professors to use flexible rights protection schemes such as Creative Commons and open access licenses.
• Increasing awareness of access to knowledge initiatives and movements among different stakeholders.
