[A2k] SCCR draft conclusions — influenced by right-owners, ignore WBU proposal

[James Love]

http://www.keionline.org/blogs/2008/11/07/sccr-draft-conclusions/

SCCR draft conclusions — influenced by right-owners, ignore WBU proposal

WIPO has just released at 8:50 am, “draft conclusions of the SCCR.”

The section on limitations and exceptions was good in some areas, for
example, when the committee “stressed the importance of the forthcoming
study on exceptions and limitations for the benefit of educational
activities, including distance education and the trans-border aspect
therof, and that it should include developing and least developed
countries.”

In the area of blind, visually impaired and other disable persons, the
draft conclusions ignored both the  WBU proposal and the substantive
interventions by the WBU over the past six years for norm setting to
address harmonization of minimum exception and the cross border movement
of accessible works. But it does include a nearly word for word
endorsement of the IFRRO (a collection society) proposal for a
“stateholders platform,” focusing on voluntary licensing.

KEI’s initial reaction the one of deep disappointment in the SCCR
leadership. The WBU proposal was in fact mentioned very favorably by
about 90 percent of the national delegations who spoke at this meeting,
but the draft conclusions managed to bury and ignore the substantive
concerns of the WBU and to highlight a proposal pushed only by the US
and the EU, which appeared this week, without any consultation with the
disabled community, and which is sponsored by a group that is completely
opposed to limitations and exceptions (and signed a statement to that
effect that was distributed at the meeting). This is not a good way to
start the day.


--
James Love, Director, Knowledge Ecology International
http://www.keionline.org | mailto:james.love at keionline.org
Wk: +1.202.332.2671 | US Mobile +1.202.361.3040 | Geneva Mobile +41.76.413.6584