22 - The Role of Nonrightsholder Advocates and Academics in Achieving Social Justice Balance in Copyright: The Case of Colombia

Summary

Colombia’s process of implementing the copyright provisions of the United States–Colombia Agreement (U.S.–Colombia FTA) illustrates the importance of nonrightsholder advocate interest groups, including among others tech-users, software engineers, scholars, free speech advocates, and academics in achieving intellectual property social justice (IP-SJ) by balancing the interests of intellectual property rights (IPR) holders and the interests in equitable access, inclusion, and empowerment of other affected groups. In a country where economic interests have dominated the content of IPR law, especially copyright law, without regard for the law’s impact on the interests of others, the active participation of representatives of nonrightsholder interest groups makes a critical difference. For the first time in the literature, this chapter describes the implementation process of the U.S.–Colombia Free Trade Agreement copyright provisions, highlighting the impact of advocacy by representatives of nonrightsholders and academics in achieving a more balanced copyright system that is in accord with IP-SJ theory. The provisions ultimately adopted provide more socially equitable access, inclusion, and empowerment opportunities for users, the general public, and other groups beyond the narrow economic interests of rightsholders, which are nonetheless still strongly protected.