October 2003

Professor Lawrence Lessig writes for eWeek.

When asked why the United States had opposed the WIPO meeting, Lois Boland, director of international relations for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, told the Post, Open-source software runs counter to the mission of WIPO, which is to promote intellectual property rights. She added: To hold a meeting, which has as its purpose to disclaim or waive such rights, seems to us to be contrary to the goals of WIPO.

Now, there are many reasons why one might have opposed the WIPO meeting, but the reasons stated by those opposing it betray simple ignorance of the facts. First, they are just flat wrong. Neither free nor open-source software is in the public domain. Both depend on fundamentally strong intellectual property rights to assure that each remains free or open sourced.

Second, why would it be WIPO's sole purpose to maximize intellectual property rights? Is WIPO against generic drugs? Is it a failure of WIPO's objectives that patents don't run for 100 years?

Third, and most troubling, why would it be contrary to the goals of WIPO for intellectual property rights holders to disclaim or waive their rights? Isn't that for them to decide? Individuals have the right to choose what they want to do with their property rights. Does Bill Gates undermine the private property system when he gives $20 billion to do good in the world?