[Random-bits] 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