Copy/South dossier: issues in the economics, politics, and ideology of copyright in the global South

Restrictive copyright laws still act as a serious barrier to sharing and learning. This dossier is addressed to readers who want to learn more about the global role of copyright and, in particular, its largely negative role in the global South. The main intended audience is so-called information ‘activists’ such as librarians and teachers, anti-globalisation activists, cultural workers and NGOs.

The dossier provides a collection of over fifty articles which critique different aspects of current intellectual property regimes with the intention of opening up debate and posing questions for further research and action.

Articles are divided into sections covering different aspects of the debate such as:

• how the global intellectual property system imposes western cultural values
• how copyright drives capital from South to North
• barriers to the use of copyrighted materials in the South
• how the countries of the South can, and are resisting the global copyright system