[Random-bits] Bush proposes new "netcasting" regulations for Internet

[James Love]

These are two blogs on the WIPO webcasting treaty.   This week the  
Bush Administration sent WIPO a new proposal, which is now called  
"netcasting."  While the issues and politics are complicated, it is  
fair to say that AT&T has joined Yahoo and News Corp. in pushing for  
the US to endorse a global treaty creating this new type of internet  
regulation, which the US Congress has never even considered.   Jamie

This provides the detail of the US government's latest submission.

http://www.cptech.org/blogs/wipocastingtreaty/2006/08/us-government- 
proposes-sweeping-new.html

Also, below is a short bit I posted on the Huffington Post.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love/bush-calls-for- 
regulation_b_26486.html

The Huffington Post

James Love
August 03, 2006

Bush Calls for Regulation of "Netcasting"

The Bush Administration is asking the World Intellectual Property  
Organization (WIPO) for new global regulations on "netcasting." What  
is "netcasting"? No one really knows. According to this (http:// 
www.cptech.org/blogs/wipocastingtreaty/2006/08/us-government-proposes- 
sweeping-new.html) recent US government submission to WIPO:

     "netcasting" means the transmission by wire or wireless means  
over a computer network, such as through Internet protocol or any  
successor protocol . . . of sounds or of images or of images and  
sounds or of the representation thereof . . . consisting of . . .  
audio, visual or audiovisual content of the type that can be carried  
by the program-carrying signal of a broadcast or cablecast. . . "

This week's proposal by the Bush administration was the product of an  
inter-agency review that included the US Patent and Trademark Office,  
the US Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and  
Information Administration (NTIA), the State Department, and the  
Library of Congress, plus others. But it was really the product of a  
handful of lobbysts for big corporations -- most prominent in this  
particular case -- Murdoch's News Corp (owner of Fox News and  
MySpace), Yahoo, and AT&T.

The Bush Administration is expected to have public consultations on  
this proposal this month. Let's hope people are reading the federal  
register in August.

For more on this general issue, start here. (http://www.cptech.org/ip/ 
wipo/bt/index.html)

---------------------------------
James Love, CPTech / www.cptech.org / mailto:james.love@cptech.org /  
tel. +1.202.332.2670 / mobile +1.202.361.3040

"If everyone thinks the same: No one thinks."  Bill Walton