WIPO has just released at 8:50 am, “draft conclusions of the SCCR.”
The section on limitations and exceptions was good in some areas, for example, when the committee “stressed the importance of the forthcoming study on exceptions and limitations for the benefit of educational activities, including distance education and the trans-border aspect therof, and that it should include developing and least developed countries.”
In the area of blind, visually impaired and other disable persons, the draft conclusions ignored both the WBU proposal and the substantive interventions by the WBU over the past six years for norm setting to address harmonization of minimum exception and the cross border movement of accessible works. But it does include a nearly word for word endorsement of the IFRRO (a collection society) proposal for a “stateholders platform,” focusing on voluntary licensing.
KEI’s initial reaction the one of deep disappointment in the SCCR leadership. The WBU proposal was in fact mentioned very favorably by about 90 percent of the national delegations who spoke at this meeting, but the draft conclusions managed to bury and ignore the substantive concerns of the WBU and to highlight a proposal pushed only by the US and the EU, which appeared this week, without any consultation with the disabled community, and which is sponsored by a group that is completely opposed to limitations and exceptions (and signed a statement to that effect that was distributed at the meeting). This is not a good way to start the day.
[img_assist|nid=234|title=Jukka Liedes of Finland, the SCCR Chair, supported the IFRRO proposal, ignored the WBU proposal|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=235|height=300]