[A2k] Reuters: U.N. broadcasting treaty talks suffer setback

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSL2511665020070625


U.N. broadcasting treaty talks suffer setback
Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:09AM EDT

GENEVA (Reuters) - Efforts to clinch a long-sought international
broadcasting treaty have suffered a setback from lingering
disagreements over signal piracy and the Internet, a top U.N. official
said on Monday.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) had planned to wrap
up decade-long negotiations over the pact at a diplomatic conference at
the end of 2007.

But divisions over signal piracy and the re-transmission of broadcasts
over the Internet marred a preparatory session in Geneva last week,
causing the U.N. agency to further extend the talks that started in
some form in 1997.

"It is going to be a while before we return to convene a diplomatic
conference," WIPO Deputy Director-General Michael Keplinger told
Reuters in a telephone interview.

He said WIPO's general assembly would discuss a new schedule for the
talks in September or October.

The new treaty would give more copyright and intellectual property
safeguards for broadcasters, adding to the rights in the 1961 Rome
Convention on the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and
Broadcasting Organizations, which predates much of modern television
technology.

In a statement, the United States delegation to the talks said
negotiators remained "far apart" on fundamental issues related to the
new treaty, including the nature and extent of protections needed.

Parties to the negotiations have already agreed to exclude Webcasting
from the intended pact.

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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
voice +41.22.791.6727
fax +41.22.723.2988
mobile +41 76 508 0997
thiru@keionline.org