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Shuttleworth sponsors copyright probe

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer
Johannesburg, 06 May 2008

The Shuttleworth Foundation and the Canadian International Development Research Centre will, for the next two years, fund research in eight African countries on the relationship between copyright and education.

The research will be managed through the University of the Witwatersrand's Link Centre and will be conducted in Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, SA and Uganda. It will run under the banner of the African Copyright & Access to Knowledge network (ACA2K network), a multi-disciplinary team of researchers supported by international advisors.

"Between now and early 2010, the ACA2K team will gather research evidence, and engage with policymakers, in an effort to ensure maximum use of copyright law flexibilities that have the potential to increase learning materials access in the study countries," the Shuttleworth Foundation says in a media release announcing the move. "Access to both digital and hard-copy resources will be probed.

"The ACA2K network comes out of the access to knowledge (A2K) paradigm within the intellectual property field - a paradigm which regards the protection and promotion of user access as a central objective of copyright law.

"The A2K approach seeks an appropriate balance between the rights of content users and the rights of the content rights-holders, with particular attention to the types of balancing necessary in developing country contexts," the Shuttleworth Foundation says.

"The ACA2K network also has a clear focus on the opportunities and challenges offered by the digital, Internet era - in which there are greater opportunities for learning materials access, but also new technological, legal and behavioural barriers."

Over the next two years, ACA2K researchers in each of the eight study countries will investigate the "copyright environment" (policies, laws, regulations, practices, perceptions) in their respective countries in relation to access to learning materials by their countries' learning communities. There will be a particular emphasis on tertiary university learning environments, adds the foundation started by Internet entrepreneur and open source advocate Mark Shuttleworth.

Of central concern to the network is to find out which copyright law flexibilities are being deployed in each of the study countries, and the effects these flexibilities have in these countries. Examples of important possible flexibilities are legal exceptions, limitations and regulations that cater for:

* Use of learning materials in teaching, research, learning;
* Distance education;
* Adaptation and use of learning materials by the sensory-disabled;
* Local-language translations of learning materials; and
* Affordable local pricing of materials.

After the completion of the country studies, there will be a comparative review of the findings across all of the countries, and presentation of research findings and policy recommendations through a national policy dialogue seminar in each country.

The amount of funding was not disclosed.

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