While AIDS "information overload" increases among English speakers, far less information on treatment, prevention, and other AIDS news is available in other languages.

In much of Asia, and most probably elsewhere in the developing world, few doctors know English well enough to make best use of the treatment information available; and most prevention and support materials are rarely accessible to people who do not speak one of the major world languages.

For many in developing countries, where 95% of AIDS cases occur, the first gap that must be bridged is the information gap.

Because we take it for granted, few of us recognize that in fact information is the cheapest and most basic form of treatment. Without information on new therapies, how can doctors correctly advise patients?

Without information on new drugs, how can activists work to encourage their availability--or advocate for health-care resources? What is the meaning of informed consent when the counselors themselves are ill informed?

Clearly there are many challenges concerned with information access. The basic infrastructure for dissemination is often lacking, although this is improving faster than many expected.

Translation is a time-consuming task--although also a very good way to understand the material. And machine translation is coming closer to reality. These challenges are within the control of the countries concerned.

The remaining challenge is that of intellectual property rights. Much of the information, especially the 'news', is copyright. This means that while anyone can read the information on the Reuters web site, for example, it cannot be distributed without permission--in any language. Although it is possible to ask permission, rights holders may find it is often easier to just say "no" rather than deal with a request for rights to publish. And even if no one would care, organizations may run the risk that grants or other funding could be withdrawn were they to publish without permission.

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To many, it seems unconscionable that there should be any restrictions placed upon access to information on health matters. As Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Secretary General of the WHO said on 18 June 1999 at the Healthy Planet Conference, "We have learnt that we cannot hope for change towards sustainable development without democracy, freedom of speech and access to information."

Notwithstanding this—and similar comments by Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan--according to the Humanities Libraries Project, 60% of United Nations agencies place over-tight, defensive copyright restrictions upon their publications, and 20 major UN agencies charge higher prices for use of their information than developing countries can afford (see reference below).

Possible Solutions

Many organizations do make a special effort to facilitate dissemination of their material. Many of these have adopted so-called 'copyleft' statements.

One typical example from the Population Council: "Information from this Web site may be copied, reproduced, or distributed without permission from the authors or publisher, provided that the recipient of the information does not copy, reproduce, distribute or adapt this text for commercial gain, and provided further that the Population Council is credited as the source on all copies, reproductions, and distributions."

While this approach is a major step forward--and clearly deserves more activist support--it is less likely to be acceptable to the commercial information providers.

However, a case could be made for special consideration to be given to the dissemination of health-related news in other languages. Granted this raises a number of questions on definition of 'health-related' and 'news', but with dialog, these should not raise insuperable problems.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has indicated a readiness to work with the International Publishers Association, but it appears that this would be on a article by article basis.

While a significant move, such an arrangement could be an administrative nightmare for shoe- string organizations. Instead, why not negotiate a blanket agreement between the main copyright holders and the developing-country organization, allowing translation and dissemination of all items from that source with appropriate acknowledgment?

Resources

One of the leading advocates of a more open approach to provision of such information is the Humanities Libraries Project, www.oneworld.org/globalprojects/humcdrom/copyrigh.htm

Their web site provides more information, additional examples of 'copyleft' statements, and details of a worldwide movement and petition to release all UN publications and publicly funded humanitarian and development information.

Additional ideas may be obtained from 'Copyleft, Open Source an Sharing Digital Information' at: http://dsl.org/copyleft/