Beyond Intellectual Property (M3, #5)

http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-9327-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

This website pertains to the book entitled Beyond Intellectual Property: Toward Traditional Resource Rights for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities by Darrell A. Posey and Graham Dutfield.

If a stranger entered your community, and started asking questions about its people, its resources, and its history, what would you do?

The above question must be considered from the perspective of the world’s Indigenous peoples who are tired of being ignored while outsiders profit from their intellectual property and traditional resource rights. Dutfield and Posey provide sound and insightful advice on how Indigenous people can deal with this and many other issues.

Beyond Intellectual Property “provides an invaluable and eye-opening look into one of the most provocative and explosive issues of this century and likely the next: the patenting of life”.

This book can be read online, downloaded or ordered from the website. It is also available in French and Spanish. The excerpts I’ve read are fascinating – I look forward to having the time to delve deeper in the near future!