Ottawa has signed agreements with the Assembly of First Nations and the Metis National Council to explore ways for Aboriginal communities to control and benefit from their cultural knowledge.
"When it comes to First Nations knowledge and cultural expression, every copyright, trademark or patent regime does not accommodate First Nations interest," said Stuart Wuttke, an AFN lawyer who was in Geneva last week for international meetings on the issue.The question has deep roots in Indigenous communities, said Niigaan Sinclair of the University of Manitoba's Native Studies Department.
"Copyright and patent law lack the legal tools to allow for truly collective ownership of content or ideas. It's a poor fit." "There's ability for outside parties to gain some of that knowledge," said Wuttke. "It is possible, but there's a process involved instead of someone just taking the knowledge and registering it, and they become the owner of it.""Appropriation is not free speech. Appropriation is theft. Appreciation is relationships," he said. "When you appreciate something, you use it in your art or in your medicines.
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