[Ecommerce] VOA on WIPO Broadcast Treaty

[James Love]

http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=3D0C84D600-7650-4EF3-8706773E29=
3BBDCA

UN Discusses New Internet Copyright Treaty
Lisa Schlein
Geneva
06 Nov 2003, 19:59 UTC

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The World Intellectual Property Organization is discussing a new treaty
that could drastically change copyright rules and use of the Internet. The
effort is intensifying debate between broadcasters, who produce programs,
and consumer groups that want free access to the programs through the
Internet.

The Intellectual Property Organization, a U.N. agency, says existing
international standards of rights and protections for broadcasters and the
public must be upgraded to make them relevant in the age of digital
technology

It says this is needed because new delivery systems for radio and
television programs, and the availability of such material over the
Internet, have made it easier for films, music and other mass-media
products to be copied and distributed illegally.

The Washington-based private group called the Consumer Project on
Technology says the new rules being discussed in Geneva would grant too
many rights to broadcasters.

The project's director, James Love, says he opposes the proposed treaty,
because it would allow broadcasters to regain control over material that
has lost its copyright and is in the public domain, available to consumers
for free.

"It actually takes things that are in the public domain, which are not
owned by anyone, and it extends ownership rights for 50 years," he said.
"In one proposal, the 50 years restarts every time you rebroadcast the
work. And, so it is almost a perpetual right. The artists themselves are
in opposition to the treaty, because they believe that it shifts the power
away from them. They feel that they are the weak party vis-=E0-vis the
broadcasters. So, they think it sets up the broadcasters to have
syndication rights, re-distribution, rental. They feel that the
broadcaster then starts to take over the process of distributing the
works."

On the other side of the debate is the U.S. National Association of
Broadcasters, a trade group that represents the interests of about 1,000
television and radio stations in the United States. One of its lawyers,
Benjamin Ivins says the consumer group's argument is completely false.

"Even though that work, the content, is in the public domain, the
protection of the signal and the effort that the broadcaster went through
in providing that work, making it available for public performance to the
public ought to be protected," he said. "That has nothing to do with the
inherent public domain status of the work."

Mr. Ivins says the aim of the treaty is to protect the investment the
broadcasters put into producing the programs, and the increased investment
often required to update them years later. He says older works that are in
the public domain would stay there. But he says companies that enhance
older material and release it in a new form, would have a copyright on
that new version.

While controversy continues to swirl over that issue, the United States
has introduced a proposal that is sparking a new controversy. The U.S.
proposal would protect the copyrights of Internet Web site operators. The
aim is to protect the work of the people who prepare the material and
maintain the Web sites. But critics say the proposal would hurt Internet
consumers in developing countries, who now believe they can freely use
Internet material in any way they want.



--
James Love
http://www.cptech.org mailto:james.love@cptech.org
mobile +1.202.361.3040

--
James Love
http://www.cptech.org mailto:james.love@cptech.org
mobile +1.202.361.3040