WIPO has spent nearly 10 years gathering international agreement
over a new deal for broadcasters which would give them intellectual
property rights over broadcasts which would exist in addition to
existing copyright laws.
But a campaign spearheaded by activist groups such as the
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and involving thousands of
podcasters and bloggers joined with technology industry giants such
as Intel and defeated the move last week.
The Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCRR)
of WIPO met last week to finalise a recommendation that the new
proposal go to a special conference for ratification by WIPO as a
whole.
At the end of the meeting, though, there was not enough
agreement between member nations about the proposal and the
Committee recommended that the proposal not be forwarded to a
diplomatic conference for adoption.
Gwen Hinze is the international affairs director for the EFF.
She told weekly technology law podcast OUT-LAW Radio about the opposition to the
plans.
"If you create a new layer of rights that sit on top of
copyright from a consumer's point of view that raises questions
about access to information, so information that might otherwise be
in the public domain as a matter of copyright law, the exceptions
and limitations wouldn't apply and that raises some concerns about
access to knowledge," said Hinze.
Podcasters were worried that the new right would affect material
they produced and their ability to disseminate it on their own
terms. One and a half thousand of them signed an EFF open letter to
WIPO protesting against the move.
Consumer electronics companies also protested because the plan
contained technological protection measures which they feared could
give broadcasters control over television recording equipment, such
as TiVO boxes.
WIPO wanted the new rule to replace the Rome Convention of 1961,
which it says is out of date and does not cover cable televisions
services.
The SCCRR had tried last autumn to have the rule proceed
straight to diplomatic conference for ratification, but the General
Assembly said that two more meetings were needed to hammer out
international consensus on the move.
Opponents agree that television signal piracy is a problem that
must be solved, but say that it can be solved with a 'signals based
approach' rather than by creating an entire new intellectual
property right.
"There is quite a significant body of people who have joined
together and would back a signal based approach to a treaty," said
Hinze. "So for instance in January there was a joint statement from
a number of civil society groups, a number of tech companies and a
number of library groups all in support of a signal based approach,
giving broadcasters protection for their signals but not creating
an exclusive rights approach that would have the unintended
consequences that I have raised."
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