Access to Knowledge

SCCR28: Venezuelan and Uruguayan reaction to Chair’s proposal to invite broadcasters to provide technical expertise in informals

Posted on by Thiru

During the first day of WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR28), the Committee was made aware of the Chair’s (Martin Moscoso, Peru) proposal to invite three experts from the broadcasting industry (1) Alexandre Jobim, International Association of Broadcasting, (2) Premila Manvi Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union and (3) Erica Redler (North American Broadcasters Association). Venezuela, noted,

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SCCR 28 Day 1: Selected Interventions re Technical Experts Invited to Informal Negotiations

Posted on by Manon Ress

Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights: Twenty-Eighth Session
SCCR/28 June 30 to July 4, 2014 (Geneva, Switzerland)

June 30, 2014.

The Chair has decided to move the Committee to room B for informal (i.e. not public) discussions. He announced the names of 3 representatives from broadcasting organizations associations. Some delegations welcomed the technical experts selected and appointed …by the Chair. However, others saved the day (or the process?) by asking a few questions.

In their own words:

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WIPO sccr 28 Day 1: The USA Statement re 3 topics: Broadcasting, L&E for Libraries and Education

Posted on by Manon Ress

Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights: Twenty-Eighth Session
SCCR/28 June 30 to July 4, 2014 (Geneva, Switzerland)

June 30, 2014 Statements of the USA

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: […] the United States was very pleased by the progress that we made at the last session of the SCCR, and we are looking forward to continuing to move forward this week in clarifying and improving the proposals before us.

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WIPO SCCR28 Day 1: Support for a Broadcasting Treaty Diplomatic Conference in 2015?

Posted on by Manon Ress

Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights: Twenty-Eighth Session
SCCR/28 June 30 to July 4, 2014 (Geneva, Switzerland)

June 30, 2014. Morning Session
to read the close captioning of SCCR28
http://www.streamtext.net/player?event=WIPO
password: sccr28 during the meeting
Watch live: Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights – ow.ly/yAzbf. #SCCR28

Find a few comments and selected interventions:

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SCCR27: Chair’s Conclusions

Posted on by Thiru

At 12:56 AM on 3 May 2014, WIPO’s Copyright Committee, (SCCR27) could not reach agreement on the future work on “Limitations and exceptions: libraries and archives.” The main point of contention was “text-based work” which the European Union sought to excise from the text. Consequently, the Committee was at an impasse in developing an appropriate international legal instrument (in whatever form) on copyright exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives (whether model law, joint recommendation, treaty and/or other forms). Continue Reading →

SCCR 27 Difficult Discussion re Orphan Works & Author Right to Withdraw Work from Circulation

Posted on by Manon Ress

ORPHAN WORKS, RETRACTED AND WITHDRAWN WORKS, AND WORKS OUT OF COMMERCE
May 1, 2014 SCCR TOPIC 7

The discussion regarding orphan works included the rather difficult and political topic of moral rights and the right to withdraw a work from circulation. Can a library reproduce and make available a work that the author wants withdrawn from the public?

For example the Africa group had proposed:

Right to Access Retracted and Withdrawn Works
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Governments Interventions on Limitation of Liability for Libraries (some may surprise you)

Posted on by Manon Ress

SCCR 27 May 1, 2014 Limitation of liability for libraries and archives
Michelle Woods for the WIPO SECRETARIAT provided the SCCR with this very useful summary of the various proposals on the table:

This topic is on limitations of liability of libraries and archives. There is also actually a proposal to make that limitations on liability “for” instead of “of” libraries and archives, reflected in the text.

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KEI intervention on Library Access to Orphan works, at SCCR 27

Posted on by James Love

KEI and other NGOs attending SCCR 27 have been able to make interventions on various articles in the proposed library treaty. On the issue of library access to orphaned works, KEI’s intervention covered the following points, and made a proposal for text.

1. There is ample evidence that national approaches to providing access to orphan works is quite diverse.
2. The diversity of approaches have been used by some to express pessimism that this issue can be addressed in a treaty.
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Cross-Border Evidence at SCCR 27 May 1, 2014

Posted on by Manon Ress

If the Broadcasters’treaty often appeared to be a treaty in search of a problem in the last few days (or years?), the Libraries and Archives’ problem is about a treaty in search of a solution… or maybe solutions. And if the problems (and thus solutions) were not specifically cross borders…well, the librarians and archivists of the world would not be here “en masse” testifying at the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, a Committee extremely proud to have created the WCT and the WPPT to solve the cross border issues of copyright owners.

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