Announcing "Access to Knowledge - A Guide for Everyone"

Access to Knowledge: A Guide for Everyone aims to provide a concise and non-specialist introduction to IP and A2K issues, and selected related issues of communications rights and access to information and communication technologies (ICTs). Its intended readership includes consumer groups and NGOs (non-governmental organisations) who wish to become more knowledgeable in this area, individual academics and activists who could use a simple reference guide to the many related issues of A2K, and consumers at large who are affected by unfair IP laws and practices.

On this note, whilst A2K has not always been high on the agenda of the global consumer movement, CI believes that it is very much of a consumer issue, on a par with the more traditional consumer issues such as food and product safety, sustainable consumption, and unethical marketing. After all, many activities that now form part of consumers' everyday lives, such as accessing learning materials, transferring music, videos or e-books from one device to another, and sharing their interests online, are deeply impacted by IP laws and policies.

This handbook is being licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike licence (CC BY-SA), so you are encouraged to share it widely. You may also copy and adapt the book for your own purposes, provided that you do so under a similar licence, and that you acknowledge the source of the material. This is much the same as what we have done in compiling this guide, which draws on the efforts of many authors who came before and whose contributions are referenced in the text.

Download now in English, Español, Français (BETA). CI members can also request printed copies.