[A2k] Jukka Liedes: "We are in a marathon" Michael K eplinger: "I don’t consider this a failure at all. We’re looking at a process that is adva ncing."

[James Love]

Reading this ip-watch story is like listening to a Bush
Administration report on the progress in Iraq.   Jamie

* Liedes and WIPO Deputy Director General Michael Keplinger in press
briefing defended the outcome and signalled the intent to forge ahead
with treaty talks. "I think we have made tremendous progress,"
Keplinger said, as members have carefully examined alternatives for
protecting broadcasts. "I don’t consider this a failure at all. We’re
looking at a process that is advancing."

"We are in a marathon," Liedes said, likening the setback to a "cramp
in the leg."


http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=668

22 June 2007
WIPO Broadcasting Treaty Talks Sent Back To Committee

By William New

World Intellectual Property Organization members on Friday
recommended to move talks on a proposed broadcasters’ and
cablecasters’ treaty back to committee level for further
consideration, a day after rejecting a proposal to elevate the issue
to formal treaty negotiations. The move could signify a shelving of
the issue, some nine years after discussions first began.

The issue of updating the 1961 Rome Treaty on broadcasters’ rights
was addressed in the 18-22 June meeting of the WIPO Standing
Committee on Copyright and Related Rights. The group was mandated to
try to reconcile differences this year so the 2007 WIPO General
Assembly in September could send it on to formal negotiations (or
diplomatic conference) scheduled for November. Members said the
mandate could not be fulfilled.

"An idea whose time has come is unstoppable," the Indian delegate
told the closing plenary session. But the past decade of talks on the
treaty idea has served to show members the "deep fault lines" between
them on the issue, he said. The Indian official suggested there might
be better uses of the committee’s time now, such as working to ensure
access to knowledge and education for all members. Other observers
pointed to an existing Chilean proposal in the committee to discuss
exceptions and limitations for libraries and other special users.

Committee Chairman Jukka Liedes of Finland, the veteran chair of the
broadcasting talks, oversaw an effort in the last hours to rescue the
process by proposing a special session of the committee in autumn and
the diplomatic conference in 2008.

But countries such as India and rest of the Asian Group, and Brazil,
said they would not agree to specific dates after this year’s effort
showed how far apart governments are on the issue. Some countries,
including in Europe and several in Africa and Latin America, urged
that the talks be continued.

But it was agreed to recommend postponing the diplomatic conference
indefinitely, giving "time for reflection" and returning the issue to
the regular meetings of the copyright committee. The recommendation
would leave it that the committee could recommend the General
Assembly schedule a diplomatic conference whenever it agrees the text
is ready.

WIPO Sees Talks Advancing

Liedes and WIPO Deputy Director General Michael Keplinger in press
briefing defended the outcome and signalled the intent to forge ahead
with treaty talks. "I think we have made tremendous progress,"
Keplinger said, as members have carefully examined alternatives for
protecting broadcasts. "I don’t consider this a failure at all. We’re
looking at a process that is advancing."

"We are in a marathon," Liedes said, likening the setback to a "cramp
in the leg."

Keplinger, who came on board about six months ago, said there have
only been six months of actual negotiations and that members are
still learning about the subject. The previous 8 years were
"discussions," during which members were learning about the topic, he
said.

"This is not a topic that is well-known," Keplinger said, adding that
since discussions began, the number of countries signing on to the
Rome Treaty has nearly tripled to almost 90. But more than half of
WIPO’s 184 members are not members of Rome, which could be improved
through continuing the negotiating process, he said, adding that
there was "momentum" now.

Both officials downplayed the notion that technological developments
have rendered obsolete the need for the treaty, as has been
occasionally suggested by members. In fact, the evolving
technological environment "makes it necessary" to update it, one said.

Liedes also defended his dogged efforts to get the treaty through,
sometimes through creative chairmanship. "Some of us recognise that
broadcasters might be in a position to licence re-use of their
broadcasts," he said, creating a "balanced and fair way their
investment is used in other territories."

The official basis for the negotiation is a lengthy text numbered
SCCR 15/2, which reflects a wide divergence in views. Liedes
developed several shorter "non-papers" reflecting his consultations
with members in recent months and intended to provide a potential
basis for narrowing the larger text.

"It’s kind of sad," an opposing official said afterward. "But realism
finally prevailed. These issues are difficult. It was a prudent
decision."

NGO Reaction

Public interest groups and technology companies appeared pleased with
the outcome. James Love, director of Knowledge Ecology International,
said the committee’s action "set a high bar" for a scheduling of a
future diplomatic conference: "After there is agreement on the
objectives, scope and object of protection, topics for which there is
no agreement in sight."

Love said the negotiation reflects a change in WIPO from primarily
responding to rights-holders needs to broader issues related to the
impact of intellectual property rights. In this case, he said, "the
broadcasters demanded too much, and made too few concessions, for the
treaty to move forward."

Rights holders and broadcasters groups did not offer comments at the
conclusion.

Earlier in the week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation presented an
open letter http://www.dearwipo.com/ to WIPO signed by more than
1,500 podcasters from around the world expressing concern about the
impact of the treaty on the future of podcasting. "Giving traditional
broadcasters and cablecasters exclusive rights over deferred Internet
retransmissions that apply in addition to copyright is also likely to
harm emerging citizen broadcasting on the Internet, such as
podcasting, at a time when it is still unclear whether incumbent
broadcasters will be displaced by these new modes of Internet media,"
EFF’s Gwen Hinze said in her statement to the meeting.

William New may be reached at wnew@ip-watch.ch.

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James Packard Love
Knowledge Ecology International
mailto:james.love@keionline.org
tel. +1.202.332.2670 / U.S. mobile+1.202.361.3040, Geneva mobile
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"If everyone thinks the same: No one thinks." Bill Walton"