[A2k] xCasting Treaty and Sports

[John Howkins]

A live event is not itself copyrightable unless there are performing rights
which most (professional) sports people sign away in their contract to their
club, league, etc.  There may be some music performing rights which the club
will also sign away.  It's mostly contract not copyright.  The contracts
usually revolve around access to the ground (camera sites, access to the
touchline etc) rather than copyright.
The broadcasters then broadcast the event but they protect their ownership
of the signal through exclusive access and incidental material (music, etc)
rather than the ownership of the game itself.
The broadcasters would like stronger protection, I guess, but I'm not aware
of many examples of signal piracy.
Do the developing countries want the same level of protection as European
and US broadcasters, or something different?
Europe also has a strong public interest exemption for events of a national
interest ('listed events' in the UK) which must be shown on free-to-air TV
not pay-TV.



On 29/4/06 11:27 PM, "James Love" <james.love@cptech.org> wrote:

> I have been suggesting to a number of persons that people consider a
> push to shrink the xCasting treaty into something for sports.   Most
> of the testimony in support of the treaty from developing countries
> focused on the issue of sports broadcasts, which outside of the US
> are often not protected by copyright.  There is a lot of money in
> sports broadcasting, and we would be happy to see a sports
> broadcasting protocol come out of WIPO, if it means we don't do the
> larger treaty.  The broadcasters would get something that was
> actually valuable, and probably more interesting to them than a
> signal piracy treaty (which they claim they need but they don't
> really need, given all of the other legal mechanisms including
> copyright that can address most piracy issues), and which would
> address the one legitimate issue I have seen raised by the broadcasters.
>
> A treaty only about sports is likely to have a more focused consumer
> constituency too, which would be useful too.
>
> jamie
>
> ---------------------------------
> James Love, CPTech / www.cptech.org / mailto:james.love@cptech.org /
> tel. +1.202.332.2670 / mobile +1.202.361.3040
>
> "If everyone thinks the same: No one thinks."  Bill Walton
>
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