[DMCA-Activists] IPJ Media Release: WIPO Steps Up Pressure on "Special Interest" Broadcast Treaty

[Seth Johnson]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: IPJ Media Release: WIPO Steps Up Pressure on "Special
Interest" Broadcast Treaty
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 18:45:04 -0800
From: IP Justice Media Release <address@hidden>
Organization: IP Justice
To: address@hidden

QbroadcastXtreatyipXjusticeXmediaXreleaseX~ 18QnovemberX2004
Qcontact:QrobinXgross, ipQjusticeXexecutiveXdirectorX  p

IP Justice Media Release ~ 18 November 2004

Contact: Robin Gross, IP Justice Executive Director
  Phone: (+41) 79-434-51-26 (in Geneva)
  Email: address@hidden


WIPO Steps Up Pressure on "Special Interest" Broadcast Treaty:
Ignores Concerns of Developing Countries and Artists

(Geneva) The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
opened its 12th session of the Standing Committee on Copyrights
and Related Rights (SCCRR) yesterday in Geneva to push forward on
its efforts to pass a treaty to create new rights for
broadcasting companies.

The proposed treaty would create sweeping new rights for
broadcasting companies that would severely undermine the public
interest and subvert the rights of creators to large
broadcasters.

Despite Brazil and India's request at the last committee meeting
that the treaty draft allow for the possibility of removing
provisions designed to prevent consumers from bypassing
technology locks that broadcasting companies place on information
and entertainment, no option to delete these provisions was
included in the latest draft treaty. These controversial
provisions, similar to the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act
(DMCA), have been shown to harm to freedom of expression,
consumer rights, technological innovation, and market
competition.  Now WIPO proposes to grant an additional layer of
rights for broadcasters, on top of the rights of copyright
holders, to prevent consumer and scientific circumvention of
technology locks on broadcasts.  If the treaty passes, consumers
will be unable to access public domain programming that is locked
up by broadcasting companies.  Artists will also be required to
seek permission from broadcasting companies if they want to use
their own performances.

"It is not the role of the WIPO Secretariat to tell Member States
what their new laws will be, but rather to facilitate Member
States' expressed will," said IP Justice Executive Director Robin
Gross in a statement to the WIPO copyright committee. 
"Self-determination is an indispensable component of legitimate
democratic law-making processes. Unfortunately, it appears that
the 'tail is wagging the dog' in this case," added Gross in
Geneva.

Although the treaty purports to merely "update" existing laws, in
reality it would create a broad range of new rights for
broadcasters that currently exist nowhere in any national law. 
For example, the United States proposed that the treaty's scope
be broadened to also control webcasting.  Over a dozen Member
States and the European Community urged that webcasting be
removed from the scope of the treaty's regulation at the last
meeting, but that provision, supported only the US, also remains
in the draft treaty.  Including webcasting in the scope of this
treaty would allow traditional broadcasting companies to squeeze
out innovative Internet companies.

The proposed Broadcasting Treaty also severely undermines the
goals of the "Development Agenda," which was adopted by the WIPO
General Assembly in October to refocus WIPO's work away from
continuously ratcheting up rightsholders' rights and toward
incentivising access to knowledge. Unfortunately, WIPO's
copyright committee has yet to heed the calls from developing
countries and remains focused on "special interest" laws such as
the proposed Broadcasting Treaty.

WIPO is pushing to conclude the committee's discussion this week
and call for the convening of a Diplomatic Conference to begin
official drafting of the Broadcasting Treaty.  If WIPO is
successful and a Diplomatic Conference is called for, public
interest organizations will not be permitted to attend the
Diplomatic Conference to monitor the treaty making process under
WIPO rules.


For more information, see:
http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO

IP Justice Statement to 12th Session of WIPO Copyright Committee:
http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/november04stmt.shtml

IP Justice Analysis of the WIPO Broadcasting Treaty:
"Excessive Rights for Broadcasting Companies Threatens Public
Domain and Technological Innovation":
http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/broadcastingtreatyreport2004.shtml

Development Agenda:
http://www.wipo.int/documents/en/document/govbody/wo_gb_ga/pdf/wo_ga_31_11.pdf

"Geneva Declaration" on the Future of WIPO:
http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/genevadeclaration.shtml

Alternative NGO Proposal for a Broadcasting Treaty:
http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/NGO_Treaty_Proposal_v2.8.pdf

Joint Statement by Artists and NGOs Opposing WIPO Broadcasting
Treaty:
http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/Joint_Statement.pdf

IP Justice Top 10 Reasons to Reject the WIPO Broadcasting Treaty:
http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/Top_10_reasons_WIPO.html

WIPO Draft Broadcasting Treaty:
http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/sccr_12_2.doc

IP Justice is an international civil liberties organization that
promotes balanced intellectual property laws. IP Justice defends
consumer rights to use digital media worldwide and is a
non-profit organization based in San Francisco. IP Justice was
founded in 2002 by Robin Gross, who serves as its Executive
Director. To learn more about IP Justice, visit the website at
http://www.ipjustice.org.


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