WIPO Broadcasters Treaty

OK. Hopefully you all realized that S. 4108, the APRIL Act of 2008, was a joke. After all, there were a few excesses in there that would indicate how ludicrous the bill is.

The WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights ended its 16th session today, agreeing upon a set of conclusions that have yet to be published by the WIPO Secretariat.

In sum, though, the broadcast treaty remains on the agenda for future WIPO meetings. Also, the delegations agreed to work on limitations and exceptions in the future, but not necessarily towards a treaty.

The last day of the 16th meeting of WIPO’s copyright committee has just begun. As we listen to a presentation on WIPO’s arbitration and mediation center, we’ve been handed a set of draft conclusions for the meeting.

There’s still some discussion, including NGO comments on the broadcast treaty, to come, but here’s the draft conclusions, which will be discussed towards the end of the day.

STANDING COMMITTEE ON COPYRIGHT AND RELATED RIGHTS

Sixteenth Session, March 10 to 12, 2008-03-12

DRAFT CONCLUSIONS

Protection of audiovisual performances

The outcome of the deliberations in the course of the sixteenth session of the SCCR will be reported to the General Assembly.

• The Delegations who took the floor expressed their willingness to take up further discussions on the substance, with the aim of finding a way forward. Some Delegations stressed the importance of finding a

The bulk of the time today was taken up discussing proposed work on limitations and exceptions. IP Watch has one good account of events; KEI has another.

Basically, Chile, alongside Brazil, Nicaragua, and Uruguay, proposed a work plan for work on limitations and exceptions to copyright and related rights. That proposal is available here.

It proposes that WIPO facilitate an exchange of information on different cuntries’ limitations and exceptions, with the idea of finding common ground for an eventual treaty that will incorporate basic, minimum limitations and exceptions for users to use copyrighted works.

Things got underway in the public session a little after 4 pm here. After a great deal of private negotiation on the part of the regional groups, Jukka Liedes was again elected as chair of the SCCR. In a change, however, Luis Villaroel of Chile was elected as one of the vice-chairs, along with a representative from Morocco. Chile has often been at the forefront of discussions regarding limitations and exceptions at WIPO, introducing two documents in earlier sessions that proposed WIPO analyze limitations and exceptions and see if there was consensus to be found on them.

WIPO’s Copyright Committee meets again today for its 16th session. When last we were here, the topic of discussion was the Broadcast Treaty. While last year’s discussions ended in a delay of the treaty, it’s still on the agenda, along with its potential to radically alter the state of US copyright law. However, it shares this place on the agenda with a treaty on audiovisual performances, which has remained on the table for a number of years after a diplomatic conference on the topic failed to reach agreement.

Right now the agenda for the 16th session is as follows:

1. Opening of the session
2. Election of a Chair and two Vice-Chairs
3. Adoption of the agenda of the sixteenth session

This post wends its way to you from Geneva, where I’m attending the 16th session of WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights. On the agenda for this session are the broadcast treaty, as well as a discussion on limitations and exceptions. This latter topic would be a welcome addition to WIPO’s agenda, since all too often the focus of the Committee, and the organization at large, has been on extending the rights and control of copyright holders, without a balancing consideration of how users will continue to access, enjoy, speak with, and remix copyrighted works.

Thanks to reports from our allies in Geneva, we’ve learned that the WIPO General Assembly has decided that there will be no Diplomatic Conference on the Broadcast Treaty this year.

In my last post on the topic, I noted that the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), the subset of WIPO that was drafting the Broadcast Treaty, failed to reach an agreement, and reported this back to the General Assembly.

The General Assembly, keep in mind, was the body that had ordered the SCCR to come up with a draft treaty over the past year. Since the SCCR couldn’t, as a body, decide upon the terms of the treaty, it recommended that the GA make the following statement:

1. The General assembly is invited to

• Expect a longer post later today, but the Wall Street Journal and USA Today are running stories on FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s plan for the 700 MHz auction rules. The rules would require a Carterfone-like provision that would allow consumers to use any wireless device or application on the network, without carriers’ restrictions. However, this provision would not extend beyond the 700 MHz block. Martin will likely release his full plan sometime this week, and you can read Gigi’s post on it here.

a Public Knowledge update

Contents:

• WIPO Wipes Out
• Hollywood and Networks Want More Copyright Enforcement
• Spectrum Auction Plans Still Up in the Air
• It’s That Time — Nominations Open for IP3 Awards