How does Access to Knowledge fit with consumer protection?

Consumer groups from around the Asia-Pacific region are currently meeting in Chiang Rai, Thailand for a conference on The Next Wave of ASEAN Consumer Protection in Telecommunications, at which I presented today on the relationship between consumer protection and Access to Knowledge (A2K). As promised to conference delegates, I am posting the slides from that presentation below, in two open formats.

The theme of the presentation is that in general, consumer protection and A2K are well aligned; and I give four examples of Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies that both infringe consumer protection principles, as well as limiting access to knowledge. I also make particular mention of the problems with the Amazon Kindle, mentioned in my last blog post.

However, in a few cases, A2K and consumer protection advocates may not see eye to eye - one notable example of this is digital media piracy, which can actually be beneficial in furthering access to knowledge (I give five examples of this in my presentation), although consumer groups have often treated it as a kind of counterfeiting from which consumers should be protected.

On this topic, in response to a suggestion received today, I should clarify a point that the slides leave unstated - but which I did emphasise during my verbal presentation - namely that Consumers International doesn't advocate piracy of copyright works. Instead, we believe that the problems and inequities that drive consumers to piracy should instead be addressed through law reform.

Feel free to discuss your own thoughts in comments to this post!