On Wednesday, 5 October 2016, Knowledge Ecology International delivered the following intervention on the agenda item concerning the Report of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR).
Agenda item 11: Report on the SCCR
244 words
Thank you Chair.
Congratulations to Sylvie Forbin, the highly qualified new DDG for the Copyright and Creative Industries Sector.
KEI welcomes the entry into force of the Marrakesh Treaty, and look forward to additional work at WPO to expand access to knowledge and knowledge based goods.
There is no consensus about the Broadcasters treaty, and it should be removed from the SCCR agenda so we don’t spend 2 or 3 days of the SCCR discussing a project which is not ripe for norm setting or harmonization.
If such a treaty only addressed piracy, limited retransmission rights, and perhaps protection of sporting events, we could support it. We oppose a layer of rights for broadcasters for works other than sports.
KEI agrees with some points in the European Union intervention, including particularly that work on norm setting for the artist’s resale right may be useful and productive.
KEI agrees with South Africa, Brazil, Iran, Egypt Chile India, and several other delegations and groups that work on balance and access to culture and knowledge are important.
One area where norm setting may be feasible in the near term would be in the areas of minimum standards for exceptions relating to orphan works, archiving and preservation.
On some other areas of exceptions, the SCCR may find it useful to consider updating the Tunis model copyright law for developing countries, either the whole model law, which includes both rights and exceptions, or only the sections dealing with exceptions.
