Digital Millennium or Digital Dominion? The Effect of IPRs in Software on Developing Countries

Abstract

In November 1998, a meeting on ‘IT in the global village’ organised under the auspices of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation endorsed what is now known as the Bangalore Declaration; this document started with the proposition that information technology (IT) presented a ‘historic window of opportunity’ for developing nations both to create national wealth and to break the poverty cycle. The delegates, however, were cautious optimists; they recognised a number of drawbacks and dangers inherent in the development of IT infrastructure and information services including increases in debt, social/technical dislocation, loss of cultural diversity, loss of privacy and increased national security risks (Resolutions 24–7).