(1) Here's a letter (15 Oct 05) to Congress from CPTech, U.S. PIRG and others opposing a dangerous new proposed broadcast/webcast treaty moving through the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Previous blog here explains how it grants extraordinary intellectual property rights to firms, above and beyond existing copyright protections.

(2) An International Commission convened by the Royal Society of Arts in London has issued an important proposal: the Adelphia Charter.

The Charter sets out new principles for copyrights and patents, and calls on governments to apply a new public interest test. It promotes a new, fair, user-friendly and efficient way of handing out intellectual property rights in the 21st century.

Members include Larry Lessig of Stanford Law School (also Chair of the Creative Commons Board) Jamie Love of CPTech (Jamie and CPTech have been leaders in the fight to bring low-cost AIDS and other medicines to Africa, as well as in fighting the WIPO broadcast/webcast treaties), Jamie Boyle of Duke Law School, Nobel Laureate Sir John Sulston (who has worked to keep the Human Genome Project "open-source" (article)) and others.