the fourth place

WIPO is the international organisation responsible for the determination of intellectual property issues. When you read the quote bellow understand two things:

1. Intellectual property is a trade off between the economic interests of creative people and the culture which they serve.
2. "Floor papers" in WIPO are distributed from a specific desk and form the written notes that accompany oral presentations.

Both yesterday and again today, written statements provided by IP Justice and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which were placed on the table designated for floor papers, were stolen within minutes of being deposited on the table. Additionally yesterday documents provided by the Union for the Public Domain were also missing shortly after being placed on the table.

This morning, many of these documents were recovered from the trash can in the first floor men's restroom. Another set of IP Justice statements as well as copies of the alternative NGO Proposal for a Broadcasting Treaty were recovered from behind a desk on the ground floor. These documents provided by IP Justice, EFF, and the Union for the Public Domain were critical of the Broadcasting Treaty. [...]

we have placed a representative from civil society near the table for floor papers to "guard" these written statements. But clearly this in not an acceptable situation for NGOs or WIPO. We request that you take adequate and effective measures to protect the materials placed on the floor paper table, regardless of the views expressed in those statements.

The photocopying of documents for civil society groups at WIPO meetings has recently been banned.