[A2k] CIS statement on the Broadcast Treaty

[Nirmita Narasimhan]

CIS statement on the Broadcast Treaty at SCCR 19







The Centre for Internet and Society believes that the protection that may be
afforded to broadcasters under existing international treaties, including
Article 14 of the TRIPS Convention, are sufficient to safeguard the
interests of broadcasters, and that the Broadcast Treaty, which has been
under discussion for more than a decade without any progress, is, as the
WIPO Chair observed, an expenditure of "time, energy and resources to no
avail" (SCCR/15/2/rev).

We believe that at any rate webcasting/netcasting should be kept out of the
ambit of the broadcast treaty, even if only restricted to "retransmission"
of broadcasts as in the current draft, since by its very nature webcasting
is very different from broadcasting. Webcasting is currently quite vibrant,
with a recent report by Arbor Networks estimating that around ten per cent
of all Web traffic is streaming video, making webcasting the fastest growing
application on the Internet.  Given this situation, a strong case has to be
made to show that an international treaty is required to protect and promote
webcasting, which has not been done.

Specifically, we believe that Paragraph 16 of the WIPO Development Agenda,
which relates to preservation of a vibrant public domain, will be endangered
by a right being given to webcasters which is separate from the underlying
content of the transmission.







Nirmita Narasimhan (Programme Manager)
Centre for Internet and Society
No. D2, 3rd Floor, Shariff Chambers
14, Cunningham Road, Bangalore - 560 052
P: + 80 40926283