[A2k] PCDA/3 IFLA/eIFL third statement

[Teresa Hackett (eIFL)]

Mr Chairman, this is a joint intervention by IFLA: the International
Federation of Library Associations and eIFL: Electronic Information for
Libraries.

We wish to express our support for Cluster D Item 33, which is to
continuously evaluate WIPO=92s technical assistance programs and
activities to ensure their effectiveness. We believe that a continuous
evaluation is also necessary to ensure their quality and neutrality.

I will give you one example. The Secretariat uses a draft copyright law
as a tool  to advise Member States. This draft law was previously
available on the WIPO website. The definition of communication to the
public for transmission, by wire or wireless means, in the model law is
far narrower than the definition in the WIPO copyright treaty. The draft
law limits the making available to the public to, and I quote, =93persons
outside the normal circle of a family and its closest social
acquaintances=94. This limits, and therefore inhibits, the uses of new
wireless technologies just when we would wish to encourage their take-up
in developing countries.

Such a narrow interpretation of transmission by wire or wireless means
cannot be found in the copyright law of any major industrialised nation,
including the US and the EU Member States. Yet it has been the advice of
the WIPO Secretariat to developing countries. It can be found in the
copyright laws of numerous countries including Cambodia (2003),
Swaziland (2004) and Ghana (2005).

The Secretariat informed us yesterday that legislative advice is
undertaken entirely within house. It is incomprehensible why the
Secretariat chose to unnecessarily create such a narrow definition, for
what reasons and for whose benefit.

We know that the model copyright law is currently being updated and we
hope that this particular problem will be addressed in the revised
version. A continuous evaluation of WIPO=92s technical assistance programs
would ensure that such aberrations would be identified and rectified at
a much earlier stage before it is too late for some countries.

Thank you for your attention