[Random-bits] KEI Statement on breakdown of Broadcast Treaty negotiation

[James Love]

http://www.keionline.org/index.php? 
option=com_content&task=view&id=93&Itemid=1

KEI Statement on breakdown of Broadcast Treaty negotiation
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"Today the WIPO SCCR decided against scheduling a diplomatic  
conference to create a new treaty on broadcasting, and set a high bar  
for doing so.  Technically, the subject of the Broadcasting Treaty  
will continue to be on the agenda of the WIPO Standing Committee on  
Copyright and Related Rights, but with a fairly tough hurdle before  
it can move to a diplomatic conference --  after there is agreement  
on the objectives, scope and object of protection, topics for which  
there is no agreement in sight.

"The negotiation over the broadcast treaty has mirrored and sometimes  
driven the larger changes in the culture at WIPO.  When the  
negotiations began, it was simply about responding to demands from a  
powerful right-owner group -- the broadcasters, for expanded  
commercial rights.  As the discussions continued, civil society NGOs  
criticized the treaty, for its potential harm to the Internet.   
Several country delegations began to ask deeper questions about the  
rationale for the treaty, and examined ways to limiting the scope and  
nature of the treaty.  In the end, the broadcasters demanded too  
much, and made too few concessions, for the treaty to move forward.    
Delegates at WIPO were no longer willing to ignore issues of access  
to knowledge, or the control of anticompetitive practices.

"Next, there has to be a change of conversation at the WIPO SCCR.   
Chile has proposed a work program on limitations and exceptions for  
the blind, educators and librarians, and there will be other topics  
presented as well.  India called for a new focus on the socially  
important issues such as access to knowledge and education.  This  
will be the way forward, at the SCCR, if things go well."

Said KEI Director James Love ( james.love at keionline.org)

Last Updated ( Friday, 22 June 2007 )

----------------------------------------------
James Packard Love
Knowledge Ecology International
mailto:james.love@keionline.org
tel. +1.202.332.2670 / U.S. mobile+1.202.361.3040, Geneva mobile  
+41.76.413.6584

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