[A2k] (FromGeneva) Impasse at WIPO broadcasting negotiations: Our ship is sinking

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://fromgeneva.blogspot.com/2007/01/impasse-at-wipo-broadcasting.html


Impasse at WIPO broadcasting negotiations: Our ship is sinking

FromGeneva
January 19, 2007
Thiru Balasubramaniam

The image of a tanker slowly turning its course in a new direction has
been used to describe how the special sessions (which convene in
January 2007 and June 2007) of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright
and Related Rights (SCCR) will implement the 33rd General Assembly's
instructions to the SCCR to

     agree and finalize, on a signal-based approach, the objectives,
specific scope and object of protection with a view to submitting to
the Diplomatic Conference a revised basic proposal, which will amend
the agreed relevant parts of the Revised Draft Basic Proposal referred
to in Paragraph 2. The Diplomatic Conference will be convened if such
agreement is achieved. If no such agreement is achieved, all further
discussions will be based on Document SCCR/15/2.



However, with Mr. Jukka Liedes, the Finnish chair, steering the helm,
it seems that our tanker will soon hit an iceberg, with devastating
consequences to follow. Informal afternoon and night sessions on the
second day interspersed with pizza, beer, and wine provided gratis by
the Secretariat excluded NGOs from the deliberations. During the
informals on the second day, parties close to the deliberations
informed your blogger that many hours were spent on the what the
"objectives" of a treaty for the protection of broadcasting
organizations are. After 9 years of deliberations starting in 1998 in
the Philippines, it is heartening to know that this Committee is
finally considering the "objectives" of a broadcast treaty. Rather than
a negotiation between WIPO Member States, the tenor of the special
session thus far can be characterized by pedantic, monotone lectures by
Chair Liedes boring the Committee into submission. As Brazil and India
have noted, the non-papers circulated in a haphazard manner have no
legal status and cannot be considered as a basis for negotiations.

As my colleague Manon Ress pointed out, the Chair circulated draft
conclusions this morning on the final day of the first special session.
Judging be the lack of a rapturous welcome that these conclusions
received by such States as Brazil and India, it seems our captain is
intent on scuttling his ship before he would truly guide this Committee
to genuinely comport with the instructions of the General Assembly to
adopted a signal-based approach.

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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
CPTech
voice +41.22.791.6727
fax +41.22.723.2988
mobile +41 76 508 0997
thiru@cptech.org