A AIA é um instrumento de política ambiental que surgiu há mais de 40 anos nos EUA e disseminou-se em diversos países, tendo se tornado alvo de muitas críticas. Recentemente, estas têm se consolidado em todo mundo, por meio de revisões sistemáticas dos quadros de AIA. No Brasil, algumas propostas vêm sendo discutidas e até implementadas em alguns contextos. Ao mesmo tempo em que esse processo apresenta-se como uma oportunidade de melhoria, na contramão, existe uma ameaça de racionalização (streamlining) da AIA, com o risco de levar a uma simplificação desse instrumento e consequente perda de qualidade. Assim, este estudo se propôs a identificar e analisar algumas das propostas de alteração do processo de Licenciamento Ambiental no Brasil (apresentadas pela CNI e ABEMA), considerando as experiências internacionais. Cada proposta foi analisada a partir de um sistema de pontuação desenvolvido com base em critérios extraídos da literatura internacional, de modo que puderam ser excluídas aquelas que caracterizaram-se como propostas de simplificação ou racionalização (streamlining) da AIA e mantidas as que apresentaram algum aspecto que pudesse contribuir para a melhoria do processo. Tais propostas, apresentaram medidas de aperfeiçoamento das regras existentes, o que se analisou como um caminho mais viável que a criação de novas regras ou o relaxamento das existentes. O discurso predominante é de que a AIA ainda é vista como um fardo que ameaça o progresso econômico, embora haja tentativas de alinhar as agendas de desenvolvimento e ambiente. Há um longo percurso de enfrentamentos a ser cumprido, tanto para manter as boas regras, quanto identificar propostas que consigam melhorar a prática existente. Mas, acima de tudo, para evitar a perda da qualidade ambiental e da contribuição para a política ambiental que a AIA traz / The EIA is an environmental policy instrument that has been established over 40 years in USA and it has since spread to different countries, currently receives a many of criticisms, which is natural after decades of implementation. Recently, they have been established worldwide, through systematic reviews of EIA frameworks, and in Brazil, some proposals have been discussed and even implemented in some contexts. Although, this process can be an opportunity for improvement of the EIA, you can also configure a threat rationalization (streamlining) of the EIA, with the risk of leading to a simplification that weakens the instrument. Thus, this study aimed to identify and analyze the proposed amendments to the Environmental Licensing process in Brazil (presented by the CNI and ABEMA), taking into account international experience. Each proposal was analyzed from a scoring system developed. After analysis they were excluded those characterized as proposals for simplification and rationalization (streamlining) of the EIA and kept those that demonstrated that they can contribute to process improvement. Such proposals showed measures of the existing rules, which was analyzed as a more coherent way than to create new rules or a relaxation of the existing. The EIA, is still seen as a \"burden that threatens economic development\" and although there are attempts to align the development and environment agendas, the first continues to dominate the discourse. We have a long way to confrontations to overcome, trying to maintain good rules, select the proposals they can improve existing practice, but, above all, to prevent the loss of environmental quality and contributing to environmental policy, than the EIA provides

Submitted by Jaqueline Silva (jtas29@gmail.com) on 2014-09-26T19:38:45Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Oliveira,Victor Tomaz de-2013-dissertação.pdf: 11793142 bytes, checksum: 0d4aea9e301affeded894d8ec17c30fb (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Jaqueline Silva (jtas29@gmail.com) on 2014-09-26T19:39:40Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Oliveira,Victor Tomaz de-2013-dissertação.pdf: 11793142 bytes, checksum: 0d4aea9e301affeded894d8ec17c30fb (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-09-26T19:39:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Oliveira,Victor Tomaz de-2013-dissertação.pdf: 11793142 bytes, checksum: 0d4aea9e301affeded894d8ec17c30fb (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-08-02 / The national environmental council in Brazil (CONAMA) establishes guidelines for the environmental licensing in rural settlements in Brazil. The search for environmental conservation in areas of agrarian reform, by emiting environmental licenses, passes through a very bureaucratic process between environmental agencies and enforcement agencies of the agrarian reform. Up to May 2012, only 22 % of rural settlements in the state of Goiás had the installation and operation environmental license. To better understand this scenario and the environmental licensing in the rural settlements of Goiás, this article identified and characterized the state of the art environmental licensing settlements in Goiás in 2012. The adopted methodology quantified, checked the period of occurrence and spatialized the created settlements using GIS techniques. In parallel, we sought to understand the barriers that makes the environmental licensing processes difficult considering the agrarian reform in Goiás. The results indicated that the environmental licensing applied to the areas of agrarian reform in the present way that it is done, penalizes the beneficiary in the areas that are not licensed. Moreover, it was noticed that the licensing process does not consider the existing environmental problems in the area before the establishment of the settlements. / O Conselho Nacional do Meio Ambiente (Conama) estabelece diretrizes para o licenciamento ambiental dos assentamentos rurais no Brasil. A busca pela conservação do meio ambiente em áreas da reforma agrária, por meio de emissões de licenças, passa por um processo bastante burocrático entre os órgãos ambientais e os órgãos executores da política de reforma agrária. Até maio de 2012, apenas 22% dos assentamentos rurais existentes no Estado de Goiás possuíam a Licença de Instalação e Operação. Para melhor entender este cenário do licenciamento ambiental nos assentamentos rurais de Goiás, o presente artigo visou identificar e caracterizar o estado da arte do licenciamento ambiental dos assentamentos em Goiás em 2012. Para tal, a metodologia adotada quantificou, temporalizou e espacializou os assentamentos criados, usando técnicas de geoprocessamento. Paralelamente, buscou compreender os entraves que dificultam o processo de licenciamento ambiental na reforma agrária em Goiás. Os resultados indicaram que o licenciamento ambiental aplicado às áreas de reforma agrária nos moldes como é realizado, penaliza demasiadamente o beneficiário da reforma agrária nas áreas não licenciadas. Ademais, percebeu-se que o processo de licenciamento não considera os problemas ambientais existentes nas áreas antes da criação dos assentamentos.

Zoneamentos ambientais (ZA) são instrumentos utilizados em diversas áreas como instrumento de planejamento territorial e para ordenamento de atividades econômicas. Sua utilização como ferramenta de apoio a outros instrumentos da Política Nacional do Meio Ambiente (PNMA), como o licenciamento ambiental, deve incorporar aspectos ecológicos visando à incorporação da preocupação com a conservação da biodiversidade em fases estratégicas da tomada de decisão. O estudo de caso sobre a expansão do setor sucroalcooleiro de São Paulo representa a integração entre os processos de licenciamento ambiental (etapa de triagem) e o denominado \"Zoneamento Agroambiental do Setor Sucroalcooleiro do Estado de São Paulo\" (ZAA-SP), onde a localização dos pedidos em relação ao mapa elaborado indica o tipo de estudo a ser realizado para avaliação do projeto. Foi estabelecido um panorama para seleção de critérios e indicadores voltados à conciliação entre preocupações com a conservação da biodiversidade e o desenvolvimento do setor por meio da abordagem DPSIR (Força motriz, Pressão, Estado, Impacto, Resposta), que permite uma avaliação causal entre o processo produtivo e as características ambientais por ele afetadas, além de permitir adaptações que foram necessárias para o seu desenvolvimento. Posteriormente, foram desenvolvidas análises espaciais na região Noroeste do estado de São Paulo, onde se criaram 8 (oito) cenários para avaliar: (i) a influência da escala dos dados adotados em cada critério avaliado e (ii) a decisão pelos valores de referência para estes indicadores. Os resultados indicaram um acréscimo de \'áreas inadequadas\' e \'adequadas com restrições\' em um total superior a 2Mha no cenário \"ideal\". O rigor quanto ao indicador de declividade foi responsável pelo maior acréscimo de áreas \'inadequadas\' – o que neste estudo representa um aspecto relevante tanto para a conservação e manutenção de recursos hídricos e do solo, mas também define o método de colheita, manual ou mecanizada – e as áreas indicadas para novas áreas protegidas influenciaram na delimitação das áreas \'adequadas com restrições\', a partir da delimitação das zonas de amortecimento de Unidades de Conservação de Proteção Integral. Estes cenários foram confrontados com a localização de unidades industriais de novos pedidos de licenciamento, além de suas áreas de influência, procurando avaliar se os estudos exigidos para o projeto em questão eram condizentes com as recomendações do ZAA-SP. Considerando o mapa do cenário ideal (com novas bases de dados e novos parâmetros), dos pedidos avaliados por Relatório Ambiental Preliminar (RAP) por estarem em zonas mais adequadas no ZAA-SP, 36,6% deveriam ter sidos reavaliados quanto a esta decisão, com a possibilidade de elaboração de estudos completos (Estudo de Impacto Ambiental e Relatório de Impacto Ambiental – EIA/RIMA), sendo que duas destas propostas já deveriam ter sido negadas por terem sido alocadas em zonas \'inadequadas\' neste último mapa. Considerando as áreas de plantio (áreas de influência) dos empreendimentos analisados houve um incremento superior a 340% de alocação de \'áreas inadequadas\' entre o ZAA-SP e o cenário mais conservador das análises, equivalente a mais de 1Mha em áreas absolutas. Isto é preocupante, pois as atividades agrícolas do setor ensejam uma série de impactos sobre a biodiversidade e os ecossistemas. Desta forma, baseados na adaptação e atualização do instrumento, a consideração equivocada das características do território pode prejudicar os processos de avaliação de impactos quando estes não exigirem estudos mais completos. A partir do estudo de caso, percebe-se que a integração de instrumentos da PNMA deve ser conduzida com parcimônia para que cada instrumento adote critérios e indicadores adequados ao seu objetivo, pois decisões erradas já nas primeiras etapas de avaliação de projetos prejudicam a capacidade dos instrumentos envolvidos de exercer seu papel dentro dos sistemas de gestão ambiental. / Environmental zoning (EZ) are instruments applied by many fields such as territorial planning and for planning of economic activities. Its use as a support tool to other instruments of the National Environmental Policy (NEP), as the environmental licensing, must incorporate ecological aspects for conservation of biodiversity in strategic phases of decision making. The study case about the expansion of sugarcane sector of São Paulo representes an integration between the environmental licensing process (screening stage) and the so-called \"Agro-Environmental Zoning of Sugarcane Industry of the State of São Paulo\" (ZAA-SP), where location of requests in the elaborated map indicates the type of study to be conducted for evaluating the project. A framework was established for selection of criteria and indicators aimed at reconciling concerns about biodiversity conservation and the development of the sector through the DPSIR approach (Driving force, Pressure, State, Impact, Response), allowing a causal evaluation between production process and the environmental characteristics affected by it, and allowed adjustments which were necessary for its development. Later, spatial analyzes were developed in the northwestern region of the state of São Paulo, where were created eight (8) scenarios to assess: (i) the influence of the scale of databases used in each criteria and (ii) the decision by reference values for these indicators. The results indicated an increase of \'unsuitable areas\' and \'suitable with restrictions\' in a total of more than 2Mha in the \"ideal\" scenario. Slope restrictions indicator was responsible for the largest increase of inappropriate areas - which in this study is an important issue both for conservation and maintenance of water resources and soil, but also sets the harvest method, manual or mechanized - and indicated areas for new protected areas influenced the definition of \'suitable with restrictions\' zones, derived from definition of Full Protection Conservation Units buffer zones. These scenarios were confronted with the location of industrial units of new applications, as well as their areas of influence, seeking to assess whether the studies required for the project in question were consistent with the ZAA-SP\'s recommendations. Considering the map of the \"ideal\" scenario (with new databases and new parameters), the applications evaluated by Preliminary Environmental Report (PER) for being in more suitable areas in ZAA-SP, 36.6% should be reassessed about this decision, with the possibility of preparing more complete studies (Environmental Impact Statement - EIS), and two of these proposals should have been denied because they were allocated into \'inadequate\' zones in the latter map. Considering the plantation areas (areas of influence) of the analyzed enterprises, there was an increase of more than 340% of allocation in the \'unsuitable areas\' between the ZAA-SP and the most conservative scenario analyzes, equivalent to more than 1Mha in absolute areas. This is worrying because the agricultural activities of the sector cause impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems. Thus, based on the adaptation and updating of the instrument, the erroneous consideration of the characteristics of the territory can hinder the assessment of impacts when they do not require more comprehensive studies. From the study case, we can see that the integration of NEP instruments should be conducted sparingly so that each instrument can adopt appropriate criteria and indicators to your goal, because wrong decisions within the first steps of project evaluation undermine the ability of instruments involved to exercise its role within the environmental management systems.

A AIA é um instrumento de política ambiental que surgiu há mais de 40 anos nos EUA e disseminou-se em diversos países, tendo se tornado alvo de muitas críticas. Recentemente, estas têm se consolidado em todo mundo, por meio de revisões sistemáticas dos quadros de AIA. No Brasil, algumas propostas vêm sendo discutidas e até implementadas em alguns contextos. Ao mesmo tempo em que esse processo apresenta-se como uma oportunidade de melhoria, na contramão, existe uma ameaça de racionalização (streamlining) da AIA, com o risco de levar a uma simplificação desse instrumento e consequente perda de qualidade. Assim, este estudo se propôs a identificar e analisar algumas das propostas de alteração do processo de Licenciamento Ambiental no Brasil (apresentadas pela CNI e ABEMA), considerando as experiências internacionais. Cada proposta foi analisada a partir de um sistema de pontuação desenvolvido com base em critérios extraídos da literatura internacional, de modo que puderam ser excluídas aquelas que caracterizaram-se como propostas de simplificação ou racionalização (streamlining) da AIA e mantidas as que apresentaram algum aspecto que pudesse contribuir para a melhoria do processo. Tais propostas, apresentaram medidas de aperfeiçoamento das regras existentes, o que se analisou como um caminho mais viável que a criação de novas regras ou o relaxamento das existentes. O discurso predominante é de que a AIA ainda é vista como um fardo que ameaça o progresso econômico, embora haja tentativas de alinhar as agendas de desenvolvimento e ambiente. Há um longo percurso de enfrentamentos a ser cumprido, tanto para manter as boas regras, quanto identificar propostas que consigam melhorar a prática existente. Mas, acima de tudo, para evitar a perda da qualidade ambiental e da contribuição para a política ambiental que a AIA traz / The EIA is an environmental policy instrument that has been established over 40 years in USA and it has since spread to different countries, currently receives a many of criticisms, which is natural after decades of implementation. Recently, they have been established worldwide, through systematic reviews of EIA frameworks, and in Brazil, some proposals have been discussed and even implemented in some contexts. Although, this process can be an opportunity for improvement of the EIA, you can also configure a threat rationalization (streamlining) of the EIA, with the risk of leading to a simplification that weakens the instrument. Thus, this study aimed to identify and analyze the proposed amendments to the Environmental Licensing process in Brazil (presented by the CNI and ABEMA), taking into account international experience. Each proposal was analyzed from a scoring system developed. After analysis they were excluded those characterized as proposals for simplification and rationalization (streamlining) of the EIA and kept those that demonstrated that they can contribute to process improvement. Such proposals showed measures of the existing rules, which was analyzed as a more coherent way than to create new rules or a relaxation of the existing. The EIA, is still seen as a \"burden that threatens economic development\" and although there are attempts to align the development and environment agendas, the first continues to dominate the discourse. We have a long way to confrontations to overcome, trying to maintain good rules, select the proposals they can improve existing practice, but, above all, to prevent the loss of environmental quality and contributing to environmental policy, than the EIA provides

O Licenciamento Ambiental é instrumento que se mostra com estreita ligação com processos de avaliação de impacto ambiental, e somente deve ser concedido após a certeza da conciliação entre a atividade e a qualidade ambiental. No Estado de São Paulo é usado o Relatório Ambiental Preliminar (RAP) como forma de se analisar a viabilidade ambiental de empreendimentos. Concluiu-se que o mesmo não serve como elemento no processo de licenciamento de gasodutos, pois não exige a necessidade de estudo de alternativas locacionais, e em sendo assim, seu uso não garante que a atividade analisada demonstre viabilidade ambiental, função fundamental de qualquer Estudo de Impacto Ambiental. O estudo de viabilidade ambiental necessita instrumentos que atribuam confiabilidade ao processo decisório e a Avaliação de Risco Ambiental (ARA) é uma ferramenta importantíssima, pois complementa a avaliação sobre a viabilidade ambiental do empreendimento, e se mostra útil para o Licenciamento Ambiental de atividades. Dessa forma, o principal motivo de escolha desta ferramenta decorre do fato de seu uso servir como instrumento para tomadas de decisões mais racionais e efetivas onde exista possibilidade de danos, o que a torna de suma importância na verificação da viabilidade ambiental de um empreendimento. A ARA foi aplicada ao transporte de gás natural por gasodutos, porque este combustível tem ganhado maior espaço na matriz energética do Brasil, com crescente tendência de expansão. Concluiu-se que a ARA deve ser usada desde o início do processo de licenciamento, já para a obtenção da primeira das licenças que é a LP. Com isso, os riscos são avaliados e usados como critério fundamental para o estudo de localização do traçado do gasoduto. Dessa maneira, os riscos de fatalidades associados a acidentes com gasodutos são reduzidos, garantindo mínimos riscos à população / Environmental Licensing is a tool showing great connection with the environmental impact assessment process, and should only be granted after the conciliation between activity and environmental quality is verified. The State of Sao Paulo has implemented the Preliminary Environmental Report (PER), which is used to evaluate the environmental suitability of activities. As it does not require consideration of all location (siting) and technology alternatives, the use of PER for licensing purposes does not assure under any circumstance that the analyzed activity presents environmental suitability, which is a fundamental role of any environmental impact study. Environmental suitability evaluation needs instruments to increase reliability to decision making, and Risk Assessment (RA) is a very important tool because it complements the analysis about the activity's environmental suitability, making it essential for the Environmental Licensing process. RA was applied to the conveying of natural gas through pipes because the Brazilian natural gas network has been expanding for the last few years. It was concluded that RA should be used from the beginning of the environmental licensing process, adopting associated risks as fundamental criteria for location study of the gas pipe route, which is an essential condition to define the environmental suitability of the proposed activity. This way, fatality risks posed by the gas lines are reduced, assuring minimal risks to the population/environment

In 1870, physicians in United States were not licensed by the state or federal governments, but by 1900 almost every state and territory passed some form of medical licensing. Regular physicians originally promoted licensing laws as way to marginalize competing Homeopathic and Eclectic physicians, but eventually, elite Regular physicians worked with organized, educated Homeopathic and Eclectic physicians to lobby for medical licensing laws. Physicians knew that medical licensing was not particularly appealing to state legislatures. Therefore, physicians successfully packaged licensing laws with broader public health reforms to convince state legislatures that they were necessary. By tying medical licensing laws with public health measures, physicians also provided a strong legal basis for courts to find these laws constitutional. While courts were somewhat skeptical of licensing, judges ultimately found that licensing laws were a constitutional use of state police powers. The quasi-governmental organizations created by licensing laws used their legal authority to expand the scope of the practice of medicine and slowly sought to force all medical specialists to obtain medical licenses. By expanding the scope of the practice of medicine, physicians successfully seized control of most aspects of healthcare. These organizations also sought to eliminate any unlicensed medical competition by requiring all medical specialists to attend medical schools approved by state licensing boards. Ultimately, licensing laws and a growing understanding of medical science gradually merged the three largest competing medical sects and unified the practice of medicine under physicians. This dissertation includes previously published material. / 2016-06-17

Defende a compatibilidade de licenças compulsórias com o ordenamento jurídico brasileiro e indica hipóteses em que esse instituto poderia ser implementado no Brasil. Para tanto, analisa as licenças compulsórias para obras intelectuais previstas no Direito Internacional e no Direito Estrangeiro, bem como os institutos assemelhados que também permitem o uso de obras intelectuais sem a prévia e expressa autorização dos titulares de direitos autorais, mediante garantia da justa remuneração a esses titulares, apresentando justificativas fundadas no ordenamento jurídico brasileiro para a adoção de alguns desses regimes no Brasil. Identifica dois grupos de licenças compulsórias: um justificado diretamente pelas necessidades culturais e educacionais de países em desenvolvimento, e outro fruto de razões econômicas e práticas, especialmente da impossibilidade de obtenção de autorização individualizada de todos os titulares de direitos autorais das inúmeras obras a serem usadas, por exemplo, no rádio, no televisão, e, atualmente, pela Internet. A primeira parte da obra esclarece que a licença compulsória é um instituto mais conhecido no âmbito do Direito de Patentes do que no Direito Autoral, enquanto a segunda parte apresenta um breve panorama histórico da origem das licenças compulsórias para obras intelectuais. A terceira parte da obra apresenta as licenças compulsórias para tradução, para reprodução, para gravação de obras sonoras e para radiodifusão previstas na Convenção de Berna e na legislação de diversos países estrangeiros. Apresenta, ainda, as soluções estrangeiras para questões de obras órfãs e de uso privado, as quais incluem a adoção de licenças compulsórias ou de institutos assemelhados (direitos de remuneração e licenças coletivas estendidas). Na quarta parte, verifica-se que o ordenamento jurídico brasileiro reconhece a necessidade de balanceamento de direitos constitucionais e a necessidade de impedir o abuso de direito, apresentando o instituto das licenças compulsórias para obras intelectuais como um instrumento para atingir esses objetivos. Em seguida, são avaliados os artigos das duas versões do Anteprojeto de Reforma da Lei de Direitos Autorais que mencionam as licenças compulsórias, indicando-se as possibilidades de melhoria em tais dispositivos. A quinta parte da obra distingue as licenças compulsórias de outros institutos conhecidos no Direito Brasileiro e indica, ao final, sua natureza jurídica. A sexta parte analisa a veiculação de obras por meio da Internet e traz propostas de implementação de regimes de licenças compulsórias no Brasil como aprimoramento à atual estruturação do Direito Autoral brasileiro. Conclui que as licenças compulsórias são sistemas de gestão dos direitos autorais, inexistindo impedimento para a sua instituição no Brasil, especialmente como uma forma de solução aos desafios enfrentados pelo Direito Autoral no tocante à veiculação de obras pela Internet, defendendo a instituição de um ônus geral transitório até que se possa estabelecer uma licença legal definitiva para usos não comerciais e de um sistema duplo para usos comerciais: instituição de licenças obrigatórias para as hipóteses autorizadas pela Convenção de Berna e de licenças coletivas estendidas para as demais hipóteses de usos comerciais. / The work defends the compatibility of compulsory licenses with the Brazilian legal system and indicates cases in which the institute could be implemented in Brazil. It analyzes the compulsory licenses of intellectual works under international law and foreign law, as well as the similar institutes that also allow the use of intellectual works without the prior written consent of the copyright holders, by ensuring fair compensation to such holders, presenting justifications founded in Brazilian law for the adoption of some of these schemes in Brazil. It identifies two groups of compulsory licenses: one directly justified by the cultural and educational needs in developing countries, and another by economic and practical reasons, especially the impossibility of obtaining individual consent from all copyright holders of the numerous works to be used, for example, on radio, on television, and nowadays, on the Internet. The first part explains that compulsory licensing is a widely known institute for the Patent Law and less known for the Copyright Law, while the second part provides a brief historical overview of the origin of compulsory licenses of intellectual works. The third part introduces compulsory licenses provided in the Berne Convention and in some foreign countries for translation, for reproduction, for recording and for broadcasting. It also presents foreign solutions to orphan works and private use issues, which include the adoption of compulsory licenses or similar schemes (right to compensation and extended collective licensing). In the fourth part, it is shown that Brazilian law recognizes the need for balancing constitutional rights and the need to prevent abuse of law, presenting the institute of compulsory licenses to intellectual works as a tool to achieve these goals. Then, the two versions of the Draft Bill to reform the Brazilian Copyright Act that mention compulsory licenses are reviewed to point out possible improvements in such provisions. The fifth part of the work distinguishes compulsory licensing of other known institutes in Brazilian law and indicates its legal nature. The sixth section analyzes the transmission of works through the Internet and it brings proposals for implementation of compulsory licensing regimes in Brazil as an improvement to the current structure of the Brazilian Copyright Law. The work concludes that compulsory licenses are copyright management systems, whose implementation is compatible with the Brazilian legal system, especially as a form of solution to the challenges faced by Copyright Law regarding the transmission of works over the Internet, advocating the creation of a general, transient, levy until a definitive legal license can be established a for non-commercial uses and a dual system for commercial uses: imposition of compulsory licenses for the cases permitted by the Berne Convention and of extended collective licenses for other commercial uses.

This qualitative modified participatory study underpinned by social critical theory explored the experiences of immigrant medical practitioners seeking registration in New Zealand. The occupational science notions of occupation, occupational deprivation and occupational apartheid were used to understand the experiences of the participants. The objective of the study was to understand the experiences of the participants and facilitate their self-empowerment through facilitated dialogue, affording them opportunities for collective action. Data was obtained through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with eighteen immigrant medical practitioners who were doctors and dentists as well as two physiotherapists. The two physiotherapists were sampled out of necessity to explore diversity in findings. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. This method included the processes of coding data into themes and then collapsing themes into major themes which were organised under categories. Four categories were created in the findings describing the experiences of immigrant practitioners and suggesting solutions. Firstly; findings revealed that immigrant medical practitioners had a potential worth being utilised in New Zealand. Secondly; it was found that these participants faced negative and disabling experiences in the process of being registered. Thirdly; the emotional consequences of the negative experiences were described in the study. Fourthly; there were collectively suggested solutions where the participants felt that their problems could be alleviated by support systems modelled in other Western English speaking countries that have hosted high numbers of immigrant medical practitioners from non-English speaking countries. This collective action was consistent with the emancipatory intent of participatory research informed by social critical theory. This study resulted in drawing conclusions about the implications of the participants’ experiences to well-being, occupational satisfaction as well as diverse workforce development initiatives. This study is also significant in policy making as it spelt out the specific problems faced by participants and made recommendations on what can be done to effectively utilise and benefit from the skills of immigrant medical practitioners. A multi-agency approach involving key stakeholders from the government departments, regulatory authorities, medical schools and immigrant practitioners themselves is suggested as a possible approach to solving the problems faced by these practitioners.

Over the last two decades there has been a tremendous increase in collaboration among competing firms. A significant number of these collaborations are international. This thesis explores the incentives and welfare consequences of collaboration in the context of international trade. We consider two types of cross-border collaborations. The first is collaboration by sharing a part of firms' value creating activities, such as technology development, product design and distribution. This saves on production costs but reduces product distinctiveness. Firms collaborate if and only if the reduction in product distinctiveness is lower than a threshold level. We find that the threshold increases with an increase in trade costs. That is, an increase in trade costs makes collaboration more likely. Higher trade cost lowers competition, which in turn enables the firms to save on fixed costs while forgoing some product distinctiveness. Furthermore, we demonstrate that contrary to standard intuition, higher trade cost could enhance consumers' welfare by inducing competitors to collaborate. We extend our model to endogenise location choice by the firms where collaboration requires co-location (due to the benefit of local spillovers or joint investment in key infrastructures). Unlike the original model, we find that an increase in trade costs can discourage collaboration. In both circumstances, we find that an increase in trade cost can improve consumer surplus. The second type of collaboration considered in this thesis is licensing. We extend the standard licensing literature to an environment where firms compete in the domestic as well as foreign market. We examine how trade cost affects the licensing decision as well as the optimal payment mechanism. We find that an increase in trade costs reduces the possibility of licensing. Concerning the payment mechanism, we find that (i) either royalty or (ii) a two-part tariff (involving a fixed fee as well as royalty payments) is optimal. An increase in trade costs reduces the likelihood of royalty only being the optimal payment mechanism.

It may seem controversial that open-source software (OSS), i.e. software created by voluntary contributions that is available to use, change, and distribute for free, can be utilized for business purposes. Yet, for some firms, commercial OSS software products are the primary source of revenue. In this thesis, these companies are referred to as OSS vendors. Although some OSS vendors have existed for more than thirty years, how they conduct their business has not been extensively studied. Business models as a concept has been widely used in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, often when describing firms working with OSS. In that context business models often refer to the offering, i.e. the products the firm offers to its customers and how revenues are collected. However, in academia the business model concept has evolved in a broader sense encompassing several fields and into a rich theoretical field itself. This thesis aims to further the understanding on how OSS vendors conduct their business, by using a business model framework, which has been constructed from business model and management theories. This framework was used to study OSS vendors to investigate the configurations of their business models. A cross-case analysis of four carefully selected OSS vendors searched for generic patterns in these configurations. Furthermore, the cases were also studied regarding sustainability and profitability. Two generic business model configurations were found, community immersion and community utilization. OSS vendors found configured according to the community immersion business model are deeply involved with, but also dependent on, the main community project that provides the software for the offering. OSS vendors found configured according to the community utilization business model are not dependent on the OSS project to provide their commercial offerings. Rather, the communities are used in marketing providing brand benefits, a base for recruitment, and in lesser degree functioned as quality assurance. Two of the four studied companies were found to be profitable and sustainable; one operating according to the community immersion business model and the other according to the community utilization business model. The other two companies studied, observed to operate according to the community utilization business model, did not achieve profitability during the time of the study. The findings should further the understanding of how profitable OSS vendors’ business models could be configured, and thus provide practitioners with an understanding on how different business model configurations can affect their strategies and overall business.