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| July 25, 2006 | Tuesday | Jumadi-ul-Sani 28, 1427 |
Copyright Act implementation: govt asked to frame proper legislation
ISLAMABAD, July 24: Experts at a national workshop here on Monday asked the government to come up with proper legislations and implement the Copyright Act in the best interests of producers and individuals.
The two-day workshop on “The Protection of Copyright in the Digital Environment” has been organised by the Intellectual Property Organization (IPO) Pakistan in collaboration with the European Union and World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
The event is being attended by software companies, regulatory bodies, academia, telecom companies and other stakeholders.
The experts asked the government to come up with a strategy to create awareness among the stakeholders about the intellectual property rights issues under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and their importance for preserving local know how, traditional knowledge and the rights of the original producers.
Chairman IPO-Pakistan Waseem Haqqie said the government through the IPO would use print and electronic media to create awareness among all the stakeholders about the copyright, geographical indications (GIs), safeguard the interests of the local producers and achieve the goal of one village one product by safeguarding the traditional knowledge and local industry.
He said Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had realised the importance of copyright which was why IPO was constituted to take care of four areas — patents, trademarks, copyrights and GIs. He said more powers had been given to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and customs department to eliminate the export of pirated optical disks from Pakistan and other such illegal products.
He said major challenge between the IPO was to restructure and refine the existing intellectual property structure in the country.
Barbera Szczepanska, an expert from Poland, said copyright in digital environment was much more difficult to control because of the ease of creation, modification and distribution of digital copies over networks. She said libraries helped copyright holders to protect digital works against copyright infringements.
She said copyright issue had gained additional significance in the context of the information society, the development of which could be witnessed where access to broadly understood media and means of public and direct communication played the key role.
“Using digital technology to record, make available, stores, archive and transfer works triggered the change methods and scope of their exploitation,” she observed.
Under restriction imposed through Section 56 of the Copyright Ordinance, the unauthorised use of computer programmes is an infringement of the copyright.
The purchasers of computer programmes may not adopt or make copies of programmes in connection with use by themselves or employees. If a duplicate of a computer programme is acquired by someone who has no licence to use it, the copyright owner has the right to prevent him from using it.
One of the most significant steps Pakistan may take to strengthen the legal infrastructure in this digital environment is the incorporation of international intellectual property agreements into national law, said DG IPO-Pakistan Yasin Tahir.
It would be ensured that Pakistan did not become a haven for intellectual property piracy and infringement, thereby discouraging international investment and technology transfer, he added.
Since the inception in April last year, the IPO-Pakistan has embarked upon public awareness and outreach programme, in order to promote compliance of intellectual property rights and also to create awareness of the need for promotion and protection of creativity, research and related intellectual activities for building up national intellectual property assets.
Andres Guadamuz, AHRC Research Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law, Edinburgh, Ang Kwee Tiang, Regional Director, CISAC Singapore, Advocate and Legal Consultant Majid Ali Wajid, Senior Legal Officer and Copyright Law Division, WIPO Ms Geidy Lung spoke on the occasion.
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