During the current SCCR 17 discussions on copyright limitations and exceptions, some delegates are unfamiliar with the longstanding efforts to engage WIPO delegates in this issue. Here are some rough notes of *some* of the times when this issue has… Continue Reading
Without much fanfare save a press release bereft of critical detail, the WIPO Secretariat hosted an international round table on from 26-27 November 2007 which brought together 15 leading economists to discuss the “economics of intellectual property (IP)”.
According to the press release,
A Panel Discussion on Policy Approaches to Intellectual Property Enforcement and the Impact on Trade Agreements
Organized by the Property Rights Alliance, this event was hosted by the Intellectual Property Caucus and sponsored by Rep. Tom Feeney.
Date: 12:00-1:30pm October 4, 2007
Venue: Rayburn House Office Building, Washington DC
Attendance: Congressional staff, industry representatives, other interested parties.
On July 19th, the House of Representatives passed an appropriations bill for the Department of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education which contained the following language:
In the wake of the recently concluded broadcasting negotiations at WIPO in June 2007 (Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights) where a proposed instrument for the protection of broadcasting organizations was put on cold storage but not terminated, a Chilean proposal on the examination of limitations and exceptions in the copyright area has come to the fore.
While some of the news reports have focused on north/south disputes over limitations and exceptions to rights in the WIPO Broadcasting treaty, there is a also a growing divide between North America (US and Canada) on the one hand, and Europe and Japan, on the other, over the nature of the rights in the treaty. The EU position (followed by Japan), which is being pushed by the very non-neutral Finish chair, is for Rome+ rights, to reward investment, not creativity. Continue Reading
They go into session today at 10am to discuss how to report the week’s events to the WIPO General Assembly, so officially, nothing is decided yet, but it appears as though WIPO will not be approving a diplomatic conference. Jukka Liedes, who has apparently chaired the WIPO copyright committee for all but two days over a twenty year period, may try to find a way to keep this alive, but many delegates are determined to move on to something else. Continue Reading
"Today the WIPO SCCR decided against scheduling a diplomatic conference to create a new treaty on broadcasting, and set a high bar for doing so. Technically, the subject of the Broadcasting Treaty will continue to be on the agenda of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, but with a fairly tough hurdle before it can move to a diplomatic conference — after there is agreement on the objectives, scope and object of protection, topics for which there is no agreement in sight.
My more recent Huffington Post blog on the negotiations is here, including this update: