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LISTSERVS

FPL\FBV: Forum on the Patenting of Life/Forum sur le Brevetage du Vivant seeks to challenge the privatization, monopoly control and patenting of living organisms and to build sustainable, just, healthy and creative societies. Membership is open to those who share the group's vision and objectives. To register for the list, send a brief note introducing yourself to Devlin Kuyek (devlink (at) sympatico.ca) or Kevin Walsh (kev (at) tao.ca).

ORGANIZATIONS/WEBSITES

Open Access News is a the leading source of news and comment on the worldwide effort to provide free online access to scientific and scholarly research. Edited by Peter Suber, Open Access Project Director at Public Knowledge and Research Professor of Philosophy at Earlham College.

GRAIN is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) which promotes the sustainable management and use of agricultural biodiversity based on people's control over genetic resources and local knowledge. GRAIN's website warrants investigation. It contains a vast amount of useful and relevant material.

EtcGroup (The Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration) is dedicated to the conservation and sustainable advancement of cultural and ecological diversity and human rights. ETC group works in partnership with civil society organizations (CSOs) for cooperative and sustainable self-reliance within disadvantaged societies, by providing information and analysis of socioeconomic and technological trends and alternatives.

The Quaker International Affairs Programme (QIAP) aims to be a catalyst for peaceful change in the international intellectual property policy-making process. QIAP uses a facilitative, non-partisan methodology that brings information and various perspectives to decision-makers, along with opportunities for informal and off-the-record dialogue. A variety of papers intellectual property issues related to the TRIPS agreement, WIPO, regional/bilateral trade agreements are available.

THE RAM'S HORN: This is the website of the monthly newsletter of food systems analysis published now for 25 years by Brewster and Cathleen Kneen. Contains information and analysis on biotechnology, IPRs, seeds, etc.
http://www.ramshorn.ca

FAIRCOPYRIGHT.CA: Faircopyright.ca is a resource for Canadians, especially teachers, students, and creators. It aims to explain copyright law clearly and fairly. It aims to generate discussion. Finally, it aims to encourage those who use, teach, and produce Canadian culture to engage with the copyright reform process. By Laura Murray, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario.
http://www.faircopyright.ca

CIPPIC
- The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic was established in 2003 at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section. CIPPIC seeks to ensure balance in policy and law-making processes on issues that arise as a result of new technologies.

EDMONDS INSTITUTE: A non-profit, public interest organization dedicated to education about environment, technology, and intellectual property rights.
http://www.edmonds-institute.org

IP-WATCH: Intellectual Property Watch, a non-profit independent news service, reports on the interests and behind-the-scenes dynamics that influence the design and implementation of international intellectual property policies. "Intellectual Property Watch Monthly Reporter" is available in PDF or paper, with email notice of new issue.
http://www.ip-watch.org

Blueridge-Institute: The Blueridge-Institute, founded in January 1999 and located in Muenchenstein (BL, Switzerland), engages in the critical analysis of projects and developments in genetic engineering. Further issues: Cooperation with NGOs in Europe, development of alternative concepts, development and realization of concrete campaigns in the field of genetic engineering.
http://www.blauen-institut.ch

European Network on Privatization, Public Goods, and Regulation:
Network based in Germany, publishes quarterly english-language newsletter, "either general or focussed on one of the topics of the network. It's presenting dates of conferences and actions, reviews of books and articles - often linked to online full texts." From their manifesto: We want to promote struggles against privatisation, defend public goods and social rights. We set on deprivatisation! This involves inventing alternative forms for social provision of public goods and a regulation of commons (water, land, knowledge etc.) beyond the money form. This involves the transnational generalization of social security – and new strategies of re-appropriation in our daily lives.

BOOKS and ARTICLES

James Boyle and other eminent scholars, The Public Domain, Law and Contemporary Problems, Volume 66, Winter/Spring 2003, Numbers 1 & 2. This collection of papers is the place to start. The Forum on Privatization and the Public Domain is indebted to James Boyle and this collection for arguing the case for creating a public discourse on the public domain. Boyle brought together the best scholars on the subject at a symposium that produced the 13 papers in this volume, all available under a Creative Commons license at Boyle's website:
http://www.law.duke.edu/boylesite/

See also: James Boyle, Shamans, Software and Spleens, Harvard, 1996.

David Marquand, Decline of the Public, Polity Press, 2004: "David Marquand traces the growth of the public domain from Gladstone to Attlee, analyzes the forces that began to undermine it in its post-war heyday and exposes the campaign that the Thatcher and Blair governments have waged against it." (From the book jacket). With a simple change in the names of persons and particular events described in this lucidly written brief book, the same analysis can be applied to Canada with illuminating results. (BK)

Ezra Suleiman, Dismantling Democratic States, Princeton, 2003: “The privatization, or outsourcing, of governmental functions in the cornerstone of the New Public Management (NPM), about which much will be said in this study. Yet, as we shall see, the belief is that what is privatized inevitably benefits the citizen-customer because his/her tax rate will go down as will the price he/she will pay for the service. Best of all, the service will be provided more quickly. This is an article of faith, but faith is not empirical proof. It must, therefore, remain a hypothesis, at best. It will be treated as such in this work” (taken from the Introduction). This is an excellent companion for Decline of the Public. (BK)

Rosemary Coombe, The Cultural Life of Intellectual Properties, Duke, 1998.

Jack Kloppenburg, First the Seed The Political Economy of Plant Biotechnology, 1492-2000, Second Edition, Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 2004. This book recounts the political economy of agriculture with astonishing clarity and depth. Kloppenburg provides a paradigmatic example of the impacts of the privatization on a relatively communal form of life, farming.