[A2k] History of webcasting in the Broadcasting Treaty

[Gwen Hinze]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]

FYI some here are saying that it was agreed at the 14th session of
the SCCR that webcasting would be incorporated in any discussion of
a new broadcasting instrument if there was no diplomatic conference
in 2007.

That is not accurate.

It is not in the formal Conclusions adopted in Appendix 1 of SCCR/14/7Prov.

Here are the official conclusions:

APPENDIX 1

CONCLUSIONS BY THE CHAIR, AS AMENDED BY THE COMMITTEE

On the protection of traditional broadcasting:

1. One more meeting of the SCCR will be convened before the General Assembly.
2. The agenda of this meeting will be confined to the protection of
broadcasting
organizations and cablecasting organizations (in the traditional sense).
3. A revised draft basic proposal will be prepared for the meeting
and all efforts will be
made in order to make the document available to the Member States by
August 1, 2006.
The document will be prepared on the basis of documents SCCR/14/2 and
SCCR/14/3,
and now existing proposals and taking into account the discussion of
the Committee.
4. This process is on the understanding that this additional meeting
of the SCCR would be
convened with the aim to agree and finalize a basic proposal for a
treaty on the protection
of the rights of broadcasting organizations in order to enable the
2006 General Assembly
to recommend the convening a diplomatic conference in December 2006 or in an
appropriate date in 2007.

On the protection of webcasting and simulcasting:
1. The deadline for the proposals foreseen at the 14th session of the
SCCR concerning
webcasting and simulcasting will be August 1, 2006.
2. A revised document on the protection of webcasting and
simulcasting will be prepared on
the basis of document SCCR/14/2 and proposals, and taking into
account the discussions
of the Committee.
3. The matter will be taken on the agenda of a meeting of the SCCR to
be convened after the
General Assembly.


The re-inclusion of webcasting if there was no agreement to call a
diplomatic conference at the 2006 General Assembly was something that
was requested by the US and EC delegations at the end of the 14th
meeting of the SCCR.

Here's an excerpt of the paragraphs from the official report of the
14th session which makes this clear.

<http://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/copyright/en/sccr_14/sccr_14_7_prov_f.pdf>

There is no reference to this being an accepted conclusion of the meeting.


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369. The Delegation of the United States of America referred to the
statement made by the
Delegation of the European Community on the possibility of including
simulcasting in the
proposal prepared for the diplomatic conference.  Webcasting and
simulcasting were new
technologies that were complex and required further understanding and
education among
delegations, so a separate track for further work was needed.
However, the Delegation was
confused about how the work for traditional broadcasting
organizations would proceed if
there were the possibility that protection extended not just to their
traditional activities but
also to their Internet activities.  The Delegation expressed its
support for the Chair's proposal,
which best responded to the concerns that all Delegations had.  If
substantial progress on a
treaty for traditional broadcasting organizations did not take place
at the next meeting to be
held before the General Assembly, an appropriate work plan would have
to go forward.  The
Delegation sought clarification with respect to the second part of
what the Delegation of the
European Community had described, as well as to how the activity of
the SCCR would
continue.

370. The Chair explained that the next SCCR would deal with the
protection of traditional
broadcasting.  He observed that one Delegation had stated that if the
2006 General Assembly
did not decide about the convening of a diplomatic conference on
traditional broadcasting
matters, then the parallel treatment of the traditional broadcasting
with webcasting and
simulcasting would resume.  There was a plea from another Delegation
to reconsider that
condition.  Another Delegation had put a similar condition regarding,
not the web-originated
webcasting, but simulcasting.

371. The Delegation of the European Community said it could go along
with the bifurcation
into a traditional broadcasters' treaty and a new media package,
without prejudice to the status
of simulcasting.  That would imply that, at any moment, the next SCCR
could determine that

SCCR/14/7 Prov.
page 93

traditional broadcasting also included the transmission in parallel
of the broadcast signal on
the Internet.  If a decision was not taken at the General Assembly in
September 2006 to move
to a diplomatic conference, then the discussions on the second
package or the new media
package should be reintegrated into the future discussions of the SCCR.

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Gwen Hinze
International Affairs Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Email:gwen@eff.org
Tel.: + 1 415 436 9333 x110

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