[A2k] CSC statement at WIPO SCCR

[James Love]

CSC statement at WIPO SCCR
18 January 2007

CSC offers congratulation on your re-election as Chair of the SCCR.

A signal piracy treaty should address the theft of a broadcast
service, but not the uses of content from people who receive
legitimate services.

Once the public receives a broadcast, the ability to use the
information, such as to copy or republish the information, should be
limited only by copyright, not exclusive rights for the broadcasting
or cable casting entity.

The approach should be =93Brussels=94 plus, not =93Rome=94 plus.

The GA decision pointed to this approach =96 one that did not extend
rights to the content.  But the Chairman=92s new non-papers appear to
endorse a set of rights that are similar to the approaches outlined
in the longer 15/2, which takes the Rome convention rights as a point
of departure.  The content is =93wrapped=94 in a signal.  It is not only
the Chairman who has failed to present a new text based upon the
Brussels approach.  No country has yet offered such an alternative.
Everyone wants someone else to lead on this issue.

Today there is a revolution in technologies to record, broadcast,
rebroadcast and remix audio-visual works.   A treaty which expands
the Rome Convention rights for broadcasting organizations, and
extends them to cable casting entities, or which creates new rights
in the distribution of content, will harm copyright owners and the
public in a variety of ways.

Does it make sense to legislate in this area at this time?  No.
There are too many changes in business models and technologies.  No
one in this room fully appreciates or anticipates the future business
models or technologies for broadcasting.  Profits are high for
broadcasters.  Any privacy problem can be addressed under copyright,
including for sport or news.

   [clock ran out, so the following was not read]

Since 1961=85 what has changed.  Costs of creating and distributing
audio-visual content have fallen, dramatically.   The possibilities
for publishing and access to knowledge are enormous.  This treaty
will create problems, and not solve problems.   It will increase
transaction costs and prices for information.

If there is no realistic and feasible way to reach consensus on a
treaty, and no real need for it, the SCCR should put this issue on
the back burner, and turn to more important concerns, including those
that concern the public, such as a treaty for limitations and
exceptions to copyright, for libraries, schools and the handicapped.

---------------------------------
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"