The Ourobouros of Intellectual Property: Ethics, Law, and Policy in Africa
Sandra Braman
- Vol. 7, pp 253-262
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TLDR
In this article, the authors describe the context within which this is taking place, including a brief introduction to innovations in a number of areas, before looking in particular at innovations involving intellectual property rights that blend law, policy and ethics.Abstract:
Because law, policy, and ethics are multiply intertwined, developments in any one of these areas can affect what happens in each of the others. Thus those interested in African information ethics will find it valuable to examine trends in law and policy – and those concerned about legal trends should acknowledge effective leadership when it comes from the direction of ethical practices. Though African societies are almost always pictured as receivers of social, informational, and technological innovations that come from other sources, today many Africans are providing global leadership by developing innovative techniques for approaching the problem of information access. This article describes the context within which this is taking place, including a brief introduction to innovations in a number of areas, before looking in particular at innovations involving intellectual property rights that blend law, policy, and ethics.read more
Citations
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Using the Internet to enable developing country universities to meet the challenges of globalization through collaborative virtual programmes (originally published in October 2003)
TL;DR: This paper explores two emerging educational partnerships, NetTel@Africa and the International Ocean Institute Virtual University, in terms of the lessons for how technology can be used to respond to the challenges and opportunities of globalization, and to allow institutions in developing countries to achieve results that could not be achieved by either institution acting alone.
Ethical Implications of Intellectual Property in Africa
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine ethical issues emerging from the "propertisation" of information or ideas and address the implications for introducing, applying and enforcing IP laws in Africa, which prior to colonisation had no culture of IP protection.
References
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Perceived E-Readiness Factors in E-Commerce Adoption: An Empirical Investigation in a Developing Country
Alemayehu Molla,Paul S. Licker +1 more
TL;DR: The results indicate that firms in developing countries should pay attention to both organizational and environmental considerations when making e-commerce adoption decisions and imply that investment in infrastructure development by governments and other agencies should go hand-in-hand with schemes for business development and managerial improvement at the organizational level.
Change of state: Information, policy and power
TL;DR: Sandra Braman looks at the ways in which governments are deliberate, explicit, and consistent in their use of information policy to exercise power, exploring not only such familiar topics as intellectual property rights and privacy but also areas in which policy is highly effective but little understood.
Journal ArticleDOI
Internet diffusion in sub-Saharan Africa: A cross-country analysis
TL;DR: In this paper, the notions of digital inequality and digital divide have been employed to describe two levels of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) access: the inequality of access to the cluster of technology measured by Internet use and the confluence of skills and other resources that differentiate countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Journal ArticleDOI
Are main lines and mobile phones substitutes or complements? Evidence from Africa
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the relationship between mobile and main-line telephones by accounting for reverse causality between them in an environment with low levels of development and found that mobile telephones act as a competitive force encouraging fixed-line providers to improve access.
Journal ArticleDOI
Africa as a knowledge society: A reality check
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the question of whether Africa is moving towards a knowledge society and made an analysis of the current initiatives that are undertaken in Africa to put the continent on the road towards knowledge society.