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The Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage (IPinCH) project is an international research initiative to explore and facilitate fair and equitable exchanges of knowledge relating to archaeology. The project is directed by Dr. George P. Nicholas (Simon Fraser University), co-developed with Julie Hollowell (Indiana University) and Kelly Bannister (University of Victoria) and is funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada's (SSHRC) major collaborative research initiatives (MCRI) program.
A team of 50 scholars [1] and 25 partnering organizations [2] is concerned with the theoretical, ethical, and practical implications of commodification, appropriation, and other flows of knowledge about the past, and with how these may affect communities, researchers, and other stakeholders.
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Purpose
Objectives
- to document the diversity of principles, interpretations, and actions arising in response to intellectual property issues in cultural heritage worldwide;
- to analyze the many implications of these situations;
- to generate more robust theoretical understandings as well as norms of best practices; and
- to make these findings available to stakeholders—from Aboriginal communities to professional organizations to government agencies—to develop and refine their own theories, principles, policies and practices.
Mission
The Project on Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage is an international collaboration of archaeologists, indigenous organizations, lawyers, anthropologists, ethicists, policy makers, and others working to explore and facilitate fair and equitable exchanges of knowledge relating to archaeology. We are concerned with the theoretical, ethical, and practical implications of commodification, appropriation, and other flows of knowledge about the past, and how these may affect communities, researchers, and other stakeholders.
Vision
The Project on Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage provides a foundation of research, knowledge and resources to assist archaeologists, academic institutions, descendant communities, scholars, policy makers, and other stakeholders in negotiating more equitable and successful terms of research and policies through an agenda of community-based research and topical exploration of IP issues. Our focus is on archaeology as a primary component of cultural heritage; however, this project is ultimately concerned with larger issues of the nature of knowledge and rights based on culture—how these are defined and used, who has control and access, and especially how fair and appropriate use and access can be achieved to the benefit of all stakeholders in the past.
Description
An international collaboration of archaeologists, lawyers, anthropologists, museum specialists, ethicists, policy makers, and Indigenous organizations, representing Canada, Australia, United States, New Zealand, South Africa, Germany, England, and Finland. Twenty-five partnering groups include the World Intellectual Property Organization (Geneva), Parks Canada, the Canadian Archaeological Association, and over 12 Aboriginal Nations, from the Sto:lo in the greater Vancouver area to the Barunga Community of northern Australia.
The 7-year project began in 2008 with an award of $2.5 million from the Major Collaborative Research Initiatives program of Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Approximately one-quarter of the project budget is reserved for student fellowships and research support, and one-quarter for community-based participatory research for case studies related to the project themes. The project is led by Dr. Nicholas and guided by a steering committee of six team members representing five universities (Catherine Bell [University of Alberta], Joe Watkins [University of Oklahoma], and John Welch [Simon Fraser University], plus Hollowell and Bannister). Team members represent 9 Canadian and 19 international universities, and 11 Canadian and international organizations. A project advisory board will provide an annual review of project activities in addition to advice on strategies for linking with stakeholders and dissemination of results (Michael Brown [Williams College], Larry Chartrand [Métis; University of Winnipeg], Robert Layton [University of Durham, UK], Peter Levesque [Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario], Robert K. Paterson [UBC, Faculty of Law], K. Anne Pyburn [Indiana University], Dame Marilyn Strathern [University of Cambridge, UK], David Stephenson [Brauchli-Snyder, LLC, Boulder, CO], Richard Wilk [Indiana University]).
The team will identify a range of intangible cultural heritage, intellectual property (IP) and ethical concerns faced by researchers, communities, and others, and use this information to generate ideas for norms of good practice and theoretical insights on the nature of knowledge, IP, and culture-based rights. Areas of particular concern are research on and access to cultural material and cultural heritage sites – including implications of applying both Indigenous and Western legal frameworks – cultural tourism, censorship, commercial use of rock art and other images, open vs. restricted access to information, applications in new products, bioarchaeology and the uses of ancient genetic data, legal protections, and research permissions and protocols.
The project will conduct 20 case studies employing a community-based participatory research methodology, compile a web accessible knowledge base, and explore the implications of the empirical data for theory and policy in our topical working groups and publications. The results will assist archaeologists, academic institutions, descendant communities, scholars, policy makers, and other stakeholders in negotiating more equitable and successful terms of research and heritage policies in the future.
Research Themes
The primary overarching research question is: What are the theoretical, practical, policy, and ethical implications of the emergence of IP issues in cultural heritage?[3]
The project offers a selection of research themes, broken down into "Research Themes".
Commodification& Appropriation of Traditional Knowledge
Indigenous Law & Western IP Principles
Cultural Tourism
Bioarchaeology& Uses of Genetic Data
Legal Protections for IP
Application of Traditional Knowledge in New Products
Access to & Dissemination of Data
Cultural Integrity
Censorship
Research Permissions & Protocols
Research team publications
Hollowell, J., and G. P. Nicholas 2008 Intellectual Property Issues in Archaeological Publication: Some Questions to Consider. Archaeologies 4(2): 208-217.[1]
Selected references
Brown, Michael 2003 Who Owns Native Culture? Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Brush, S. B., and D. Stabinsky (editors) 1996 Valuing Local Knowledge: Indigenous People and Intellectual Property Rights. Island Press, Covelo, CA.
Daes, E. I. 1998 Some Observations and Current Developments on the Protection of the Intellectual Property of Indigenous Peoples. WIPO Roundtable on Intellectual Property and Indigenous Peoples, 23–24 July 1998, Geneva, Switzerland. [2]
Dutfield, Graham 2006 Intellectual Property, Biological Resources, & Traditional Knowledge. In Intellectual Property & Information Wealth: Issues & Practices in the Digital Age, edited by P. Yu. Greenwood, Portsmouth, N.H.
Ellen, R., P. Parkes, and A. Bicker 2000 Indigenous Knowledge and its Transformations: Critical Anthropological Perspectives. Harwood Academic, Amsterdam.
Greaves, T. (editor) 1994 Intellectual Property Rights for Indigenous Peoples: A Source Book. Society for Applied Anthropology, Oklahoma City, OK.
Janke, Terri 1998 Our Culture: Our Future. Report on Australian Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights. Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, and Michael Frankel & Company, Surrey Hills, NSW.
Nicholas, George 2005 Four Examples of Research Agreements Concerning Intellectual Property with Applications to Archaeological Research. Discussion paper, "Open Content and 'Community Heritage': Bridging the Divide." Alexandria Archive Institute, San Francisco.
Nicholas, George, and J. Hollowell 2006 Intellectual Property Issues in Archaeology? In Archaeological Ethics, 2nd ed., edited b K. D. Vitelli and C. Colwell-Chanthaphonh, pp., 206-211. AltaMira Press, Lanham, MD.
Nicholas, George, and K.P. Bannister. 2004a Intellectual Property Rights and Indigenous Cultural Heritage in Archaeology. In Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights in Archaeology, edited by M. Riley. AltaMira Press, Walnut Grove, CA.
--- 2004b Copyrighting the Past?: Emerging Intellectual Property Rights Issues in Archaeology. Current Anthropology 45(3): 327–350.[3]
Posey, Daryl A., and Graham Dutfield 1996 Beyond Intellectual Property: Toward Traditional Resource Rights for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. International Development Research Centre, Ottawa.
Solomon. M. 2004 Intellectual Property Rights and Indigenous Peoples' Rights and Responsibilities. In Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights: Legal Obstacles and Innovative Solutions, edited by M. Riley, pp. 221-250. AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek.
Strathern, M. 2006 Intellectual Property and Rights: An Anthropological Perspective. In Handbook of Material Culture, edited by C. Tilley, W. Keane, S. Kücheler, M. Rowlands, and P. Spyer, pp. 447–462. Sage, London.
References
External links
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