WIPO Broadcast Treaty Decision Leaves Controversial Issues Hanging
Broadcasters Mon. moved closer to updated broadcasting protections as delegates to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) General Assembly in Geneva voted to hold a diplomatic conference Nov.19-Dec. 7, 2007. A week-plus of wrangling (CD Sept 29 p5) produced a compromise broadcasters and consumer representatives both claimed as a victory, but which left a host of sticky issues unresolved.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Delegates agreed to limit treaty scope to traditional broadcasting and cablecasting. Diplomatic conference talks will be based on a current draft, with the understanding that member countries may float proposals at the conference. A preparatory committee will meet in June on procedures for the conference and to list nations, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations to be invited.
The Standing Committee on Copyright & Related Rights (SCCR) will meet twice, in Jan. and June 2007, to clarify remaining issues. Those meetings “should deal with the question of whether suitable language could be established so that the prospects of concluding a treaty in the diplomatic conference itself would be easier,” said SCCR Chmn. Jukka Liedes. The meetings will try to “iron out some of the areas where there are still alternatives in the package that we have on the table,” he said. The draft decision said the diplomatic conference “will be convened if such agreement is achieved. If no such agreement is achieved, all further discussions will be based” on the current proposal.
Broadcasters endorse convening a diplomatic conference, NAB Senior Assoc. Gen. Counsel Ben Ivins told us. They have been seeking one for almost 9 years, as the need to update broadcasting protections has risen daily, he said. Several issues must be confronted to conclude a treaty, but NAB is confident many can be dealt with at the 2 SCCR meetings and the rest during the conference, Ivins said.
“We were frustrated” for years that the treaty proposal moved so slowly, said European Bcstg. Union (EBU) Legal Dept. Dir. Werner Rumphorst. Delaying the conference to Nov. 2007 from July wasn’t what the EBU wanted, but it’s still a relief, he told us. The group hopes participants will “finally discuss these issues,” Rumphorst said, adding that he’s “fairly optimistic” they can be resolved.
The draft’s statement about a conference being convened if there’s accord on the scope, objectives and object of protection seemed to cause confusion. The sentence can be read to mean no consensus, no diplomatic conference, said Rumphorst. He reads it to mean that if there’s no consensus on those issues, the basis for discussion at the conference will fall back to the basic proposal that came out of the last SCCR meeting several weeks ago, he said. All anyone can do is see what happens at the next 2 meetings, he said.
The statement means if there’s accord on scope and other issues emerging from the SCCR meetings the proposal will move to diplomatic conference, and if there isn’t, it won’t, said WIPO Deputy Dir.-Gen. Rita Hayes. Only the General Assembly can make the final decision, she said. The agreement to try to complete a signal-based treaty was “a big step forward,” Hayes said.
The General Assembly “corrected a mistake” made 2 weeks ago in the SCCR, said Consumer Project on Technology (CPT) Dir. James Love. Its decision recognized that no one was ready for a diplomatic conference, showing “there are some problems with the way the SCCR is run.” CPT hails pursuit of a signal-based treaty instead of “granting dangerous new entitlements to broadcasters, said Thiru Balasubramaniam, CPT’s representative in Geneva.