Written by Andrew Rens on February 14th, 2019
Kashmir Hill explains
How Cartographers for the US Military Inadvertently Created a House of Horrors in South Africa.
Go read it. It is a cautionary tale about how computer systems demand defaults, including default geographical locations, how place holders are put into systems without much thought, how others use those defaults as if they not place holders but hold a non-arbitrary relationship reality and how yet others build services on top of them, whose customers believe unshakeably that because its technology it can’t be wrong.
As you read it ask yourself why the South African Police could keep making the same mistake without beginning to question whether there is something amiss in their assumptions about how Internet technology works.
Also ask what this story means for the idea that nation states are the primary way in which our societies are regulated?
Posted in Innovation, Telecommunications | Comments Off on A tragedy of errors: when IP mapping goes wrong
Tags: IP Address, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’, Pretoria, Tshwane
Written by Andrew Rens on June 18th, 2018
The South African Cabinet approved the Phase 1 of an Intellectual Property Policy for the country.
It is no secret that the policy is the product of a long, sometimes tumultous process. Publication of a draft policy in 2013 provoked widely divergent reactions. Then in early 2014 a proposal by a Washington DC based lobbying firm to run a publicity campaign against finalisation of the policy. The proposal was addressed to PhRMA and the Innovative Pharmaceutical Association of South Africa (IPASA) which was established in April 2013. Entitled ‘Campaign to Prevent Damage to Innovation from the Proposed Draft National IP Policy in South Africa‘ (insecure connection) stated: “South Africa is ground zeor for the debate on the value of strong IP protection. If the battle is lost here the effects will resonate”. The plan was described by Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi as
advocating genocide.
The next document to appear was the Draft Framework for Intellectual Property Policy. That document set out a framework for the government ministries with different interests to settle on an intellectual property policy. Under the framework a phased approach was adopted; Phase 1 of the policy is the first fruit of that approach.
For the policy to become effective changes to the Patent Act, subordinate regulations and administrative practices will have to take place. The process is not over. Civil society organizations have been calling for change for decades. In an interview with Zachie Achmat in December 2017 Achmat dated the need for the changes approved in the policy as arising 25 years before.
Posted in access to medicines, Innovation | Comments Off on New Intellectual Property Policy for South Africa: Phase 1
Tags: access to medicines, Achmat, DTI, HIV, HIV AIDS, IPASA, medicines, pharmaceuticals, PhRMA, Section 27, Stiglitz
