[A2k] James Love ( WIPO Casting Treaty blog): Dipconf seems likely at this point -- now for the US it's the cablecasting treaty

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://www.cptech.org/blogs/wipocastingtreaty/2006/09/dipconf-seems-likely-at-this-point-now.html


    Tuesday, September 12, 2006


      Dipconf seems likely at this point -- now for the US it's the
      cablecasting treaty

/by James Packard Love/

The US and the EU are showing some flexibility. The Africa group has
called for a diplomatic conference. Many delegates seem inclined to move
ahead to get this issue behind them. Too early to tell what type of
rights will be included. The TPM measures are likely to only be those
relating to the protection of the signal, and not to the content.
Webcasting, netcasting and simulcasting is supposed to be out, but that
is not really certain, and no one really knows what Article 9 does.

For the US, Canada and many other countries -- the short term outcome
will effectively be a new treaty for cablecasting -- something not
covered by the Rome Convention. No one has really thought about what
this will mean, because the cable companies have not been showing up,
and everyone was focusing on broadcasting and webcasting. But most
people in the US and many other countries get TV primarily through
cable, rather than over-the-air broadcasting.

Who are the beneficiaries of a "cablecasting" right? According to many
delegates here, it will be the cable "channels," not the local cable
company. Thus, it turns out that News Corp and Time Warner -- two
companies attending this meeting, will be defined as "cablecasters" for
their various cable channel offerings. So too for many other big
aggregators of content for cable platforms around the world.

How will this play out when the cable company provides Internet access?
I think this is not well thought out either.

/posted by James Packard Love at 9:01 AM
<http://www.cptech.org/blogs/wipocastingtreaty/2006/09/dipconf-seems-likely-at-this-point-now.html>/

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