The Week in Tweets: The Liberating Authors from the Means of their Survival Edition
By Neil Turkewitz
As the world struggles under the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of organizations have seized upon a perceived opportunity to promote long held ambitions to weaken the global protection of intellectual property. First up was Brewster Kahle’s Internet Archive who took it upon themselves to give away access to the books written by others — even as authors (whose median wage is just over $20,000 to begin with) are themselves trying to adjust to a world in which they can no longer lecture or promote their books, and in which they face unprecedented precarity.
Then later this past week, a group of 140 organizations and academics wrote to WIPO proposing relaxation of licensing terms and urging WIPO members to fully explore/expand non-licensed use of copyright protected materials under available limitations and exceptions. One could not fail to observe that this took place against a backdrop in which governments, along with cultural institutions and industry bodies, were taking dramatic actions to safeguard cultural workers in a time of their utmost peril. Instead of calling upon governments to expand budgets for the acquisition of cultural productions as part of emergency relief to help in protecting one of the most financially challenged sectors, these academics instead decided to liberate authors from the means of their survival. And that, to put it mildly, is not cool. At least, not in my book.
