The Impact of Copyright on the Enjoyment of Right to Science and Culture

This paper started life in September 2014 as a submission by the International Publishers Association (IPA) to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. It is the IPA’s view that human rights and intellectual property rights are not only compatible, but also mutually supportive and interdependent. Copyright in particular, is a success story. It has proven to be a powerful tool to strengthen science and culture, improve participation in them, and provide a legal framework that confers such rights and enables policies to promote them. This is particularly true in the online environment, where copyright laws enable science and culture to prosper, and are giving scientists, creators and publishers new economic ways of exercising their profession, creating the diversity of content and services that a rapidly growing majority of the world’s population is able to participate in. Copyright creates a marketplace that empowers citizens, and reduces the need for government interference with culture and science, a welcome state of affairs, in particular from the human rights perspective.