22.( 20 ) The sharing and strengthening of global knowledge for development can be enhanced by removing barriers to open access to information for social, political, health, cultural, educational, and scientific activities and to equitable access to information for commercial, economical, industrial and financial activities.

23. ( 21 ).A rich public domain is an essential element for the growth of the Information Society, creating multiple benefits such as an educated public, new jobs, innovation, business opportunities, and the advancement of sciences. Information in the public domain should be freely accessible to support the Information Society, and protected from misappropriation. Public institutions such as libraries and archives, museums, cultural collections and other community-based access points should be strengthened so as to promote the preservation of documentary records and free and open access to information.

25.(23) (23) We encourage promoting open access with equal opportunities for all to scientific knowledge and the creation and dissemination of scientific and technical information.

Our main general concern is that the word "Open Access" vanished during PrepCom3 from the Declaration of Principles. As you are fully aware, the deletion of the paragraph that included this word in the section "Access to Information" was the result of a disastrous material mistake of one delegation, and this did reflect a position against "Open Access" from this delegation. The concept of "Open Access" which bears a precise meaning must absolutely be re-introduced in the text. The use of the word "equitable access" has been introduced, probably with good intent, but this refers to a completely different notion.

The word "open access" refers to the free access to information that has been created by authors that do not seek financial compensation. The best example is scientific authors. This information should be freely available and should not be resold by publishers at a very high price, therefore creating yet another digital divide. As a conclusion the word "open access" refers to non-commercial and public domain information.

The word "equitable access" refers to the "equitable trade" ( "commerce equitable" in French ) movement that promotes a fair financial compensation between economical actors with unequal bargaining power. Therefore the word "equitable" seems correct, but as long as it used within a trade context. This word is fitted for commercial transactions related to commercial information. It should not be used to replace "Open Access" because it would imply that scientific information, public domain information and any other information that is created for free, should be subjected to trade rules.

To summarize : The WSIS should not be confused with the WTO summit about information.

We have submitted in support of the explicit mention of "Open Access", the declaration that the German and French research agencies undersigned in Berlin (22 October 2003) It is now available online on the WSIS site and nearby the registration desk. desk.

The Open Access movement therefore now benefits from significant official support all over the world: in India ( India Academy of Science ), Germany ( DFG, Max Planck Soc. ) and France ( CNRS - INSERM) as well as the growing support of foundations ( Open Society Institute, Wellcome trust, Moore Foundation, Howard Hughes foundation ) as well as Libraries associations ( ARL ) in the USA and UK. There is now a strong dynamics in favor of Open Access, and many more countries, research agencies and foundations are expected to follow this trend.

Justification 22
The different flux of information must be distinguished with the appropriate word for each flux. Precision is required.

Justification 23
Since we are dealing in this paragraph with public domain, the term open access is most approriate, even more so coupled with free.

Justification 25
The content of the paragraph has moved to another section (US delegation suggestion) : to Section A. Our Common Vision of the Information Society paragraph 6 6. (23) We recognize that science has a central role in the development of the Information Society. Many of the building blocks of the Information Society are the result of scientific and technical advances made possible by the sharing of research results.
The only suggested modification of this rather redondant paragraph is to replace "universal" which is vague by "open".