Consumer International Global Meeting on Access to Knowledge 21 and 22 April 2010, Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia Access to Learning Materials and Knowledge in Egypt Dr. Perihan Abou Zeid

 The African Copyright and Access to Knowledge (ACA2K) project was initiated in 2007 with the objective to probe the nexus between national copyright environments and access to knowledge with respect to educational and learning materials. Funded by the IDRC and Shuttleworth foundation. More than 30 experts are engaged in the study which covers eight African countries: Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda.  The ACA2K methodology can be briefed into two phases: Research Phase: Doctrinal Analysis and Qualitative Analysis. Policy Engagement and Dissemination Phase: Identifying key stakeholders for disseminating the study findings.

B- A2K Environment in Egypt:  Copyrights is organized and governed in Book 3 of the Intellectual Property Rights Act number 182 for the year  Focus is mainly on industrial property specially patents.  Obvious lack of literature pertaining to Access to Knowledge (A2K) regardless its importance to Egypt.  Launch of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Access to Knowledge Platform.  The African Copyrights and Access to Knowledge study issued last June 2009.

 The “Access to Knowledge in Egypt” book in And the launch of the Access to Knowledge for Development Center at the American University in Cairo (A2K4D).  The launch of the first student society on A2K in Egypt at Pharos University in Alexandria (PUA-A2K).

1- Copyrights Holders’ Rights: Moral Rights:  Moral rights are perpetual, inalienable, and imprescriptible. Economic Rights:  The law prohibits any form of exploitation of the work without obtaining the approval of the holder, such as: reproduction, broadcasting, re-broadcasting, public performance, public communication, translation, adaptation, rental, lending or making the work available to the public in any manner. The duration of protection is 50 years that starts from the death of the author.

A - Educational Purposes: - The law numbers few E&L that are related to education such as: 1)Performance of the work to students within an educational institution. 2)Reproducing short extracts from a work for teaching purposes within the limits of the three step-test. 3)Reproduction for teaching purposes in educational institutes provided that: reproduction is made once or at different separate occasions; and the name of the author and the title of the work are mentioned on each copy.

B- Photocopying for Personal Use: Conditions: a)Single copy. b)For one’s exclusive personal use. c)Does not hamper the normal exploitation of the work nor cause undue prejudice to the legitimate interests of the author or copyright-holders.

Practice: Personal use exception is negatively affected with library photocopying quota policies and borrowing bans.  There is general unawareness of the nature of this exception among interviewed users stake holders (students, researchers and librarians).  “Even if the personal use exception does not exist, I will remain photocopying research materials since it’s the main mean to access updated works’’.

The law allows translating the work to the Arabic language where the author does not translate the protected work directly or through a third party to Arabic within 3 years of the first publication of the original or translated work. In such case the author’s right to translate the work shall lapse.

D- Libraries and Archives: The law permits documentation centres, archives and non-profit libraries to make one single copy of a work in the following cases:  Reproduction is made upon a request made by a natural person for using in study or research.  Reproduction is made for the purpose of preserving or substituting an original copy.  The law does not tackle public lending rights..

E- People with Disability: The law does not tackle or provide any special provisions regarding people with disability such as the visually impaired. This means that activities related to converting protected materials to formats accessible to these individuals (e.g., Braille or audio formats) can only be done with express permission of the rights- holder.

The law allows compulsory licenses whether by reproducing or translating the work. Compulsory licenses are restricted with specific conditions: a)Educational purposes; b)Against payment of fair compensation; c)License should not contradict with the normal exploitation of the work and does not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author or the copyright-holders.

4- Public Domain: The law requires obtaining a licence for any commercial or professional exploitation of such works for fees that are set out in the Regulations. 5- Parallel Imports: Parallel imports of copyright protected materials are permitted under Egyptian law without any restrictions where the copyright owner undertakes to exploit or market his work in any state or authorise a third party to do so.

Special rules govern the protection of computer programmes (CPs) within the law.  Quotations from computer software must be used only for non- commercial purposes or for the purpose of education or training.  The legitimate owner of a CP is allowed to make a single copy or an adaptation provided it remains within the limits of the purpose for which consent was initially granted, for archiving purposes or to replace a lost, destroyed or invalid original copy.

 Anti-circumvention provisions are included within the law.  Fines and imprisonment are the punishments for the manufacturing, assembling or importing any device or tool or any technology that aims to circumvent any technological protection measures that include information and communication technologies (ICTs).

Concerns on ICTs: Negative impact on accessing learning materials in Egypt because they restrict access to copyrighted material.

Other Difficulties in Accessing Learning Materials:  Economic conditions of the information seeker.  Education System faces number of challenges.

Effects of Access on Availability : In our research we have not detected that copyright infringements have a detrimental effect on the availability of material in Egypt. Occurrence of copyright infringement may cost publishers and other rights-holders money, but it does not stop them from publishing their material.

Recommendations: Legislative reform should be undertaken to ensure that the law reflects Egypt’s interests as a developing country. Non-legislative hurdles to access to learning materials should be resolved. Listing public domain. Increasing internet access given its supreme importance in accessing knowledge and learning materials.

Encouraging the development of free and open source software (FOSS) as an important tool for maximizing access to software. Encouraging authoring professors to use flexible rights protection schemes such as Creative Commons and open access licenses. Increasing awareness of access to knowledge initiatives and movements among different stakeholders.

Thank You!