[Ecommerce] AP on broadcast treaty

[James Love]

see also the daily reporting by EFF and UPD here:

http://www.public-domain.org/drafts/drupal/?q=
and /.
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/04/06/09/1959252.shtml?tid=126&tid=95

Jamie

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/apbiz_story.asp?category=1310&slug=UN%20Broadcast%20Copyright

Proposal Would Extend Broadcasters' Rights


Proposal would extend broadcasters' rights

By SAM CAGE
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

GENEVA -- A U.N. body recommended on Thursday extending broadcasters'
rights to control public use of their material, a move critics called a
blatant power grab by media companies.

The broadened control could also apply to Internet broadcasts.

A key committee of the World Intellectual Property Organization produced
a draft text for a treaty that would allow copyright protection over
broadcast signals for 50 years, more than twice the time currently
allowed in most countries.

The draft is up for discussion at the 180-nation agency's annual
assembly in September.

"Most member states are confident that differences ... can be narrowed
in a reasonable time frame, thus paving the way for the adoption of a
new treaty that would update the rights of broadcasting organizations,"
said Rita Hayes, WIPO's copyright chief - a former U.S. ambassador to
the World Trade Organization.

Copyright law for broadcasters has not been updated since 1961 and the
new treaty may extend to webcasters - which transmit directly over the
Internet - as broadcasters were not included in WIPO's 1996 online treaties.

WIPO's assembly will have to endorse the recommendations before a
diplomatic conference can take place to finalize the treaty - probably
in late 2005 or early 2006.

Campaigners for public access to broadcast material have condemned the
draft, saying the treaty is being pushed through against protests from
developing countries such as Brazil, China, Egypt and India.

They argue that broadcast signals should be protected, but the actual
content of programs should remain in the public domain.

The proposed treaty would restrict public access to news events and give
broadcasters "greater rights than creators of material," Robin Gross, of
the U.S. civil liberties group IP Justice, told reporters.

"The broadcast treaty is a blatant power grab by the broadcasters to
limit the public's access to information," said David Tannenbaum of the
British-based Union for the Public Domain. "We want strong signal
protection, but they're asking for protection of what they are
broadcasting, which is the content."

Broadcasters say they need updated copyright protection to protect their
investments against public distribution, especially on the Internet.

Extending broadcasters' copyright won't affect public access to material
for the purposes of news reporting, research and private study, all of
which are covered by existing exceptions, said Tom Rivers, an external
adviser to the Association of Commercial Television, which represents
European broadcasters.

"There's absolutely nothing in the proposed treaty to suggest the
exceptions should be curtailed or changed," Rivers told The Associated
Press.

Broadcasters need updated protection against distribution of their
programs - which often involve significant investment, such as the
recent 60th anniversary of D-Day commemorations in France, where
broadcasters combined a series of events in different locations which
otherwise could not have been witnessed by a single individual, said Rivers.

--
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
http://www.cptech.org, mailto:james.love@cptech.org
tel. +1.202.387.8030, mobile +1.202.361.3040