WIPO has crazy toilets

Grok Headline matches for WIPO has crazy toilets

Sega's Crazy Taxi patent suit against EA
is crazy

Sega's Crazy Taxi patent suit against EA
is crazy 12/06/2003 07:51 PM
Avi Bar Zeev, former Imagineer who invented a Crazy Taxi video game while at Disney, weighs in on a patent dispute between Sega (which hired a Disney exec who'd seen Avi's idea and which quickly produced and patented a Crazy Taxi game) and EA (which has its own Crazy Taxi game). Here's a case where none of the litigants in the patent dispute is the inventor of the patented material. Nice work, USPTO. L ink

the "balance" that is WIPO

the "balance" that is WIPO 03/14/2005 05:51 PM
More from EFF. You can also add your name to a petition.

WIPO Newsletters

WIPO Newsletters 05/30/2004 07:49 AM
WIPO Newsletters
http://ww w.wipo.int/tools/en/mailing-lists/index.html

WIPO maintains an automated system which allows users to subscribe to e-mail notification of news and updates on WIPO's activities, services, events, publications and discussion groups. Specific lists are maintained for various areas of interest, with information on available language versions as well as the approximate frequency of notifications.

WIPO Wants Your Feedback

WIPO Wants Your Feedback 06/05/2005 10:57 PM

Talking toilets - whatever next?

Talking toilets - whatever next? 07/01/2004 08:29 AM
It was five years ago today... 1 July 1999

Toilets of New Orleans

Toilets of New Orleans 04/02/2005 06:27 PM
Toilets of New Orleans. An anthropological journey for the lost and weary.

World's Best Toilets

World's Best Toilets 09/14/2004 08:18 PM
The world's best toilets, according to the Travel Channel. Time to redeocrate the toilet in your own castle? :-)

Look Inside A PC-killing WIPO Treaty

Look Inside A PC-killing WIPO Treaty 06/09/2004 05:40 PM

First-ever look inside a WIPO treaty
negotiation (day 1 of 3)

First-ever look inside a WIPO treaty
negotiation (day 1 of 3) 06/07/2004 01:41 PM
I'm at the World Intellectual Property Organization's Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, along with the largest-ever public-interest coalition in WIPO history, We've all come to oppose the Broadcast Treaty (which will make the Web illegal and require the world's governments to mandate the design everything that can receive a signal, from a PC to a radio) and the proposed Database Treaty (which would let people who'd amassed public, uncopyrightable facts turn them into their exlusive property).

There's no transparency into this process for most of the world. The doors are locked, the minutes are sealed, and you need to be accredited just to sit in the room.

There's no connectivity in the room, but by publishing and using an ad-hoc WiFi network in the main room, three of us (me, my cow-orker Wendy Seltzer, and David Tannenbaum from the Union for the Public Domain) were able to collaborate on note-taking on the first half-day's session using SubEthaEdit, the brilliant and unique Mac app.

The speaking style at these events is "diplomatic" --slow, formal and thick with coded and subtle messages. Between the three of us we were able to untangle some of the speech and tease out some analysis. I think that our point-form notes are a really good, comprehensive view of the meeting.

* Brazil: We've been at this for ages. No real and substantive discussions have taken place. There's no clear understanding of the potential economic and social impact of database protection. A study that was comissioned by WIPO on database copying in Latin America indicated from the Latin American perspective that regulation is premature. It's detrimental to innovation, science, education, access, etc., particularily in developing countries. In the light of this we want to question the usefulness and convenience of maintaining this on the agenda. This isn't unfinished business, the lacklustre engagement of the committee tells us that this is business we don't want to engage in, and this gets in the way of other business we might choose to address. We ask to have this permanently deleted from the agenda.

* ALA: The database protection issue in US Congress is significantly controversial, highly unlikely to pass in this Congress. Agree with Brazil, let's take this off the table here. Congress called this a "Solution in search of a problem" -- there's more databases than ever, why do we need this. We don't see a consensus or a need for protection.

* Ecuador: On behalf of Latin American and Caribbean group, I would like to make a general statement. We don't think that this should be on the agenda now.

* India: Should everyone who produces work by sweat of the brow come here for protection? This isn't creative labour. There's no allegation of widespread copying of non-original databases. Even if there were, the question relevant for this organization is whether this body should be considering nonoriginal databases. Where there's no creativity, databases are assets; that's the apporpriate concern to address by misappropriation, but not intellectual property. Perhaps soem other rubric, some other forum is appropriate. Many entities need protection of sweat of brow assets but we shouldn't have all of them approaching WIPO for a remedy.

If EU wants to protect nonoriginal databases, EU can. It's important to leave industry space to develop. at this stage, we need a more careful learning process, not laws that inhibit industry rather than facilitate. Database protection is premature now. Even in long term, it may not be appropriate for WIPO. We recommend the issue be deleted from the Standing Committee's agenda.

* US delegation: We think that this should remain on the agenda. We need to exchange more information about what this is and how it works where it's been adopted.

Link

Nine-Year-Old Boy Fascinated by Toilets
(AP)

Nine-Year-Old Boy Fascinated by Toilets
(AP) 01/04/2005 11:58 PM
AP - Nine-year-old Joey Sinay is so interested in how toilets work that he wrote a letter to a toilet maker asking if they would produce a clear commode.

Toilets of Today and Tomorrow

Toilets of Today and Tomorrow 04/23/2004 08:02 AM
Some toilets can even give you a medical checkup, sort of.

Wikipedia: Japanese Toilets

Wikipedia: Japanese Toilets 02/01/2005 09:08 PM

This isn't particularly new—in fact, it could be as old as the hills, if the hills were made in the '90s. But there has never been a fancy Japanese toilet control panel I haven't enjoyed looking at and this is certainly no exception. Even better, it's just a small excerpt from a fantastic article on Wikipedia that details more about Japanese toilets and their Number 2 cultural obsession than any one person really needs to know.

Japanese toilet [Wikipedia via Kanai]

La WIPO celebra hoy su día mundial de la
propiedad intelectual

La WIPO celebra hoy su día mundial de la
propiedad intelectual 04/26/2004 06:11 AM

WIPO urges trade name protection for new
domains

WIPO urges trade name protection for new
domains 06/06/2005 12:04 AM
The World Intellectual Property Organization believes IP rights holders should be given a chance to register their trademark-protected names under new generic Top Level Domains before registration is opened to the public.

WIPO Broadcast Treaty: consolidated
three-day notes

WIPO Broadcast Treaty: consolidated
three-day notes 06/09/2004 01:52 PM
The Broadcast Treaty is a proposal from a WIPO Subcommittee that's supposedly about stopping "signal theft." But along the way, this proposal has turned into a huge, convoluted hairball that threatens to make the PC illegal, trash the public domain, break copyleft and put a Broadcast Flag on the Internet. The treaty negotiation process is unbelievably convoluted and hard-to-follow, and they've just wrapped up the latest round in Geneva. But for the first time, a really large group of "civil society" orgs were accredited to attend. Me and another EFF staffer and the Coordinator of the Union for the Public Domain created a heavily editorialized impressionistic transcript of the meeting (EFF mirror, UPD mirror), trying to untie the knots in the negotiation. This is the first time that a really exhaustive peek inside a WIPO treaty negotiation has ever been published -- get it while it's legal!

Sign onto the Geneva Declaration, change
WIPO!

Sign onto the Geneva Declaration, change
WIPO! 09/23/2004 09:26 AM
Cory Doctorow: Last weekend, I represented EFF at a meeting in Geneva of several disparate activit and non-govermental orgs, working to draft a joint doc called "Future of WIPO," (or, more formally, "Geneva Declaration on the Future of the World Intellectual Property Organization"). This doc is a call to arms to orgs that would see WIPO revisit its role in the world, to take into account the public interest when formulating and promulgating IP policy. The doc has been finalised and is online -- we're collecting signatories for it, and you're invited.

Humanity faces a global crisis in the governance of knowledge, technology and culture. The crisis is manifest in many ways.

* Without access to essential medicines, millions suffer and die;

* Morally repugnant inequality of access to education, knowledge and technology undermines development and social cohesion;

* Anticompetitive practices in the knowledge economy impose enormous costs on consumers and retard innovation;

* Authors, artists and inventors face mounting barriers to follow-on innovation;

* Concentrated ownership and control of knowledge, technology, biological resources and culture harm development, diversity and democratic institutions;

* Technological measures designed to enforce intellectual property rights in digital environments threaten core exceptions in copyright laws for disabled persons, libraries, educators, authors and consumers, and undermine privacy and freedom;

* Key mechanisms to compensate and support creative individuals and communities are unfair to both creative persons and consumers;

* Private interests misappropriate social and public goods, and lock up the public domain.

Link to declaration, Mailto link for signing on (via Copyfight)

So WIPO, why did you scrap the Open
Source meeting?

So WIPO, why did you scrap the Open
Source meeting? 11/06/2003 08:48 AM
Yielding to US pressure, maybe?

Screenshots of toilets in different
video games

Screenshots of toilets in different
video games 10/28/2003 11:07 PM
Video game toilets (thanks kaf) .. ©„©Œˆ†Œ .. these

skive.ag.ru/wc/index.shtml
track this site | 6 links

Little Leaguers to Test Flush New
Toilets (AP)

Little Leaguers to Test Flush New
Toilets (AP) 03/31/2005 07:46 PM
AP - On Friday, Little Leaguers will get to test the new Fisher Cats Ballpark that's being built — but they won't be out on the field. Instead, they'll be in the bathrooms, making sure the toilets work.

Singapore to Inspect Bus Station Toilets
(AP)

Singapore to Inspect Bus Station Toilets
(AP) 02/10/2004 02:56 AM
AP - Spick-and-span Singapore has set its sights on one of the final frontiers of filth in its neat borders — bus station toilets, a newspaper reported Monday.

Googleplex Gets Japanese Digital Toilets

Googleplex Gets Japanese Digital Toilets 12/15/2003 10:34 AM
SF Biz. Times: Digital revolution leaves Google feeling quite flush. I don't think it should be legal to make quite these many toilet puns. (But, as Gary Price notes "How many companies receive press attention for installing new toilets?")...

Airplane Workers Used Toilets As Seats
(AP)

Airplane Workers Used Toilets As Seats
(AP) 07/23/2004 06:01 PM
AP - Two Ryanair employees were fired Friday for sitting in the toilets of a packed airplane in breach of aviation regulations.

Submit Response: Gay Toilets In
Advertising

Submit Response: Gay Toilets In
Advertising 07/13/2004 07:06 PM
Gay Toilets in Advertising - a comment on Harpic's Bloo (among others)

submitresponse.co.uk/archives/gay_toilets_in_advertising.php
track this site | 4 links

Betting on high-tech toilets

Betting on high-tech toilets 03/29/2005 03:06 PM
San Jose Mercury News Mar 29 2005 6:10PM GMT

Openness/transparency/balance manifesto
delivered to WIPO

Openness/transparency/balance manifesto
delivered to WIPO 03/22/2005 05:00 PM
Cory Doctorow: Earlier this month, a group of copyfighters circulated a manifesto/petition for increased openness, transparency and balance at the meetings of the World Intellectual Property Organization, which is currently chasing in the other direction by pulling stunts like excluding nearly every public interest group from its meetings. The petition has been delivered to WIPO now, with impressive stats:

1. More than 750 signatures

2. From 53 countries:

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Dominican Rep., Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saint Lucia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK, Ukraine, Uruguay, USA, Venezuela.

3. From all 5 continents:

Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, Oceania.

4. Non exhaustive list of signatories' areas of interest:

advertising, agriculture, anthropology, arts (visual / musical / film / entertainment), banking, bioinfomatics, chemistry, computer security / privacy / engineer / science, culture, education, health, human rights, information studies, intellectual property, journalism, law, library, mathematics, medicine, patent owner, philosophy, physics, politics, sociology, song writing, technology, video game industry, web development.

The link has versions of the petition in Russian, English, Spanish and Portuguese, Link

WIPO To Host Meetings On Intellectual
Property And Development

WIPO To Host Meetings On Intellectual
Property And Development 04/07/2005 05:01 AM
Managing Information Apr 7 2005 8:11AM GMT

WIPO publishes case book of domain name
decisions

WIPO publishes case book of domain name
decisions 03/25/2005 09:27 AM
Suckscess or failure

London's toilets in audiobook form for
iPod

London's toilets in audiobook form for
iPod 07/25/2004 02:02 PM
pPod is a spoken-word iPod based guide to the public toilets of London.

pPod combines text, spoken word audio, and music to deliver a guide to London’s public loos – truly a convenience for iPod users on the move! Entertaining audio reviews and even accompanying sound tracks such as Handel’s ‘Water Music’ and ‘Cosmic Winds’ will help users to locate their nearest (and loveliest!) loos.

Link (Thanks, Alistair!)

Beijing to clean up smelly toilets
(Reuters)

Beijing to clean up smelly toilets
(Reuters) 08/03/2004 12:32 AM
Reuters - China's capital Beijing, trying to flush away its reputation for primitive public toilets, plans to boost investment to build more lavatories and keep them stocked with toilet paper, the China Daily says.

Va. Residents Find Dead Rats in Toilets
(AP)

Va. Residents Find Dead Rats in Toilets
(AP) 12/31/2003 05:02 AM
AP - Two residents discovered dead rats in their toilets — and town officials say a nest in the sewer line could be the problem.

"Video Game Toilets: A Pictorial
History"

"Video Game Toilets: A Pictorial
History" 10/29/2003 03:28 AM

Gold leaf bedrooms? check. Toilets? ah.

Gold leaf bedrooms? check. Toilets? ah. 07/02/2004 08:23 AM
I've always wanted to see this: a photographic tour of the inside of St.Pancras. The ex-hôtel, now train station, gothic building, mind you, not the actual saint. When the Eurostar terminus moves there, someone will renovate that building and it...

Lifting the Lid on High-Tech Toilets
(Reuters)

Lifting the Lid on High-Tech Toilets
(Reuters) 04/13/2005 11:34 AM
Reuters - China is coming clean about its filthy toilets, first hosting a world toilet summit and now about to hold its first ever toilet exhibition which will lift the lid on new technology.

Intellectual property piracy is form of
terrorism: WIPO chief

Intellectual property piracy is form of
terrorism: WIPO chief 12/03/2003 02:38 PM
AFP via Yahoo! Dec 3 2003 12:42PM ET

Turning WIPO into a real UN agency:
bl0gging from the sausage factory

Turning WIPO into a real UN agency:
bl0gging from the sausage factory 04/14/2005 12:47 PM
Cory Doctorow: This week sees the long-overdue meeting on the "Development Agenda" at the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in which WIPO is meant to be redesigned to promote the UN's humanitarian objectives, instead of just ratcheting up more copyright, patent and trademark around the world, no matter what the consequence for development in the world's poorest country.

Two of my cow-orkers from EFF and several other colleagues are attending the meeting, and they're taking copious notes on the proceedings, blogging in near-real time as the deliberations unfold. WIPO's deliberations have been secret the only public accounts available have traditionally been sanitized versions that hide all the buried bodies. The presence of blogging public interest groups is having a marked effect on the proceedings; the last time I was there participating in this, the WIPO delegates were getting phone calls from their capitals in the afternoon about the stuff we'd reported on them saying in the morning. This real-time reporting creates new levels of transparency and accountability at WIPO, something that the apparatchiks there detest -- a representative from the Secretariat called it an "abuse of hospitality" for civil society groups to tell the world exactly what they're getting up to in Geneva.

The account of today's meeting is really engrossing. A group of over a dozen poor nations (the "Friends of Development") have presented a long, substantive proposal about how to reform IP in poor nations to encourage development. The US and other rich countries have come back with the ridiculous proposal that the way to help developing nations is to assign them with "buddies" from the developed world who will lend assistance in writing American-style copyright and patent laws in poor countries where they can barely afford to feed and shelter their citizens.

The developing nations are aggressively calling bullshit on this:

We would like to refer to other proposals referred to in the meeting. They show the commitment of good will to establish a proper development agenda at WIPO. Three proposals have one common element -- to limit the scope of the DA to technical assistance. Our delegation, of course, rejects this strategy. Our own proposal is concrete, and has specific policy actions.

Our paper presents concrete ways to achieve DA goals. We encourage Member States to make proposals based on the other elements of the Development Agenda.

On the US proposal, we observe that the premise that the partnership would be based from the GFoD perspective, the US focuses on strengthening IPRs. We do NOT share the views expressed in this document. Technical assistance should be tailor-made, appropriate to development needs.

The development dimension is not exhausted in the element contained in the US proposal.

Link

WIPO Broadcast Treaty Creates New Legal
Rights for Broadcasters

WIPO Broadcast Treaty Creates New Legal
Rights for Broadcasters 06/08/2004 05:00 PM

WIPO Development Agenda proposal
scorecard: USA, Mexico, UK all blow it

WIPO Development Agenda proposal
scorecard: USA, Mexico, UK all blow it 04/09/2005 12:28 PM
Cory Doctorow: Next week, non-governmental organizations, rightsholder reps, and national delegates from all over the world will converge on Geneva to meet at the World Intellectual Property Organization, for a landmark meeting on promoting development through copyright, trademark and patents.

This comes out of last fall's "Development Agenda," where India, Brazil, Argentina and other developing countries held WIPO's feet to the fire and demanded that it adopt a formal policy to act like any other UN agency: that is, to promote humanitarian goals, not higher levels of copyright restrictions.

In the interim, it's been clear that WIPO and the rich countries it has traditionally served aren't exactly thrilled about this -- for one thing, they stabbed the public interest groups in the back and arranged to lock nearly all of them out of the room.

With the meeting about to start, the national delegations have started to produce documents describing their proposals. Mexico -- captive state that it is -- has produced an embarrassment of a document calling for more copyright to save development. The US has produced an even dumber document saying that the solution to development is to assign developing nations "buddies" from the developed world to show them the ropes. The UK's document says that they think this stuff is important but aren't willing to do anything about it.

Shining out like a single rose on top of a mountain of crap is a 12,000-word detailed analysis by fourteen nations ("the friends of development"), explain exactly what they mean when they talk about facilitating development.

Jamie Love's done a great analysis of the proposals, with a scorecard on which buzzwords the different papers use, and how often they use them:

USA
All words 3059
Abuse 0
Access 3
Access to knowledge: 0
Anticompetitive 0
Consumer 0
Doha Declaration on the TRIPS 0
Education 6
Exceptions 0
Human Rights 0
Limitations 0
Market failure 0
Monopoly 0
Open source: 0
Poverty: 0
Public Health 0

Link

Ryanair sacks workers who travelled in
toilets (Reuters)

Ryanair sacks workers who travelled in
toilets (Reuters) 07/23/2004 07:50 AM
Reuters - Irish airline Ryanair has sacked two of its workers who sat in an overcrowded plane's toilets for a flight from Spain because there were no other seats.

Report: Thieves Loot Hong Kong Toilets
(AP)

Report: Thieves Loot Hong Kong Toilets
(AP) 08/19/2004 04:34 PM
AP - Thieves scouring for scrap metal have looted dozens of stainless steel drain covers and other fixtures, including faucets, from public toilets in a Hong Kong neigborhood, a newspaper reported Thursday.
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WIPO has crazy toilets

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