The CopySouth Research Group (CSRG) was established in 2004, as a loosely-affiliated group of researchers based in a number of countries across the South and the North who were interested in conducting research to expose the inner workings of the international copyright system and its largely negative effects on the global South.
They met for the first time during a workshop at the University of Kent in Canterbury, United Kingdom in August 2005, when they set the foundations for their work as a research group. Their second workshop was held in December 2008 at the Technopark Campus in Trivandrum, Kerala, India, where a group of 35 members discussed the research agenda for the following years. In June 2010, at the Meeting Hall of the Museum of Earth Sciences, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, CopySouth organised its first public conference, debating research results presented by some of its members and by invited Brazilian and international guests.
In May 2006 the Group published its first publication, the CopySouth Dossier, a collaborative document written by a group of 23 people. Since then this 210-page book is available at the CopySouth website both as a print product and a free download. A Spanish version of the Dossier came out in June 2008 and is also available at the website.
Today CopySouth is a transnational and interdisciplinary group of activists and academics from around the world. Their common engagement is the impact of the international copyright system on human culture and society in a global scale.
CopySouth Publications
The CopySouth Dossier
http://copysouth.org/portal/node/1
CopySouth Posters
http://copysouth.org/portal/node/5
El Dossier CopySouth
http://copysouth.org/portal/node/2
http://copysouth.org/portal/node/7
Argentinean professor charged criminally for promoting access to knowledge
http://copysouth.org/portal/node/3
Profesor argentino acusado criminalmente por promover acceso al conocimiento
http://copysouth.org/portal/es/node/4
3rd CopySouth Conference: The Rio Papers
http://copysouth.org/portal/theriopapers
Publications by CopySouth Members
An alternative primer on national and international copyright law in the global South: eighteen questions and answers
Alan Story
http://copysouth.org/portal/copyright-primer
Burn Berne: Why The Leading International Copyright Convention Must Be Repealed
Alan Story
http://copysouth.org/portal/node/36
Copyright and Copyduties - Importance of the Public Domain for Developing Countries
Shishir Kumar Jha
http://copysouth.org/portal/node/52
Derecho de ¿autor? El debate de hoy
Lillian Álvarez Navarrete
http://copysouth.org/portal/node/51
Imagine there is no copyright and no cultural conglomerates too... Better for artists, diversity and the economy
Joost Smiers and Marieke van Schijndel
http://copysouth.org/portal/node/53
Undermining abundance: counter-productive uses of technology and law in nature, agriculture, and the information sector
Roberto Verzola
http://copysouth.org/portal/node/11
What if… WIPO never existed?
Debora Halbert
http://copysouth.org/portal/node/10
Why Impose Copyright on Non-Western Countries?
Joost Smier
http://copysouth.org/portal/node/37
