[Ecommerce] FT on WIPO casting treaty

[James Love]

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1066565842326

Broadcasters seek deal for internet age
By Frances Williams in Geneva
Published: November 12 2003 21:55

New attempts are being made by international copyright experts to update
broadcasters' rights to cover cable and internet distribution.

Member countries of the World Intellectual Property Organisation last week
asked the body's secretariat to put together a draft text updating a 1961
treaty for consideration next June. Wipo members will then decide whether
to hold a diplomatic conference to adopt a new pact, perhaps in 2005.

Wipo says a consensus exists on the need to upgrade broadcasters' rights
to take account of technological developments including cable and
distribution of programmes over the internet. A growing signal piracy
problem and the hacking of digital television subscriber codes have also
increased pressure from broadcasters for improved protection.

Digital transmission makes piracy easy because computers can download
perfect reproductions of programmes for onward transmission via the
internet or for copying on to DVDs.

Updated pacts extending rights for music performers and record companies
to the internet were adopted in 1996 - but broadcasters and audio-visual
performers continue to be covered by a 1961 treaty known as the Rome
convention, which the US has never ratified.

Discussions on the rights of audio-visual performers have stalled over
transatlantic differences on how these rights can be acquired by
producers, but talks on broadcasters' rights have progressed since 1997.

The most contentious issues centre on the level of rights broadcasters
should enjoy and whether webcasting programmes exclusively through the
internet should be covered as well as traditional and cable broadcasters
(which may also transmit web programmes).

"The US is quite isolated" in its proposal that webcasts be covered, one
official present at last week's meeting said. Developing countries and
Japan argued that extending rights to webcasters was premature when the
business was in its infancy. The European Union has proposed protection
only for webcasts made at the same time as conventional transmissions.

The scope of broadcasters' rights is also controversial. Most governments
have proposed 50-year protection for broadcasts, the same term granted to
copyright holders and music performers.

Broadcasts are currently protected for 20 years, and information
campaigners say 50 years is unjustified for broadcasts that do not involve
significant creative input. More worrying, they say, is the suggestion
that the right could run from the most recent broadcast, enabling
broadcasters to maintain their rights almost indefinitely. There are also
concerns that broadcasters might be able to claim rights over material in
the public domain, merely by broadcasting it.

"If you transmit it, you own it," said Jamie Love of CPTech, a US-based
consumer pressure group. But treaty advocates say this would pose a
problem only in the rare eventuality that the material could not be
accessed in any other form.

Campaigners also oppose proposals that would require governments to outlaw
the sale of equipment designed to circumvent rights protection, for
instance by erasing digital watermarks on television broadcasts.



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