Broadcasting Treaty

Day 1 of SCCR 30 Information Session

Find a few Juicy bits from the long “Information Session on Broadcasting” that started this morning and was continued way passed the planned time of 4pm. It was also the least balanced panel I have ever seen at a WIPO SCCR. A handful of broadcasters, one media analyst, one journalist at the BBC, the WIPO Secretariat represented by Ann Leer (who worked for Paramount, Oxford University Press, BBC, and Financial Times/Pearson and the BBC).

Basically there was no one remotely critical of the proposed treaty nor any public interest representative.

Continue Reading →

Today we are in endless “informational” session, chaired by John Simpson from the BBC, and featuring big broadcasters from India (Zee Network), and Brazil (TV Globo), ABN Holdings Ltd (ABN) (A company headquartered England, about) and the Caribbean Communications Network Limited. Continue Reading →

The SCCR is on its last session. The Chair has provided us with a Summary. Attached is the Item 5 or Protection of Broadcasting Organizations. More work needs to be done. Obviously. Continue Reading →

SCCR29 At 3pm, the plenary reconvened and the NGOs made their statements regarding the rights, definitions and concepts of the proposed broadcasting treaty discussed during the informal with the help of charts.

On the public interest side we only had KEI, TACD, EFF and CIS. I will post these statements in another blog. Here are 3 statements that are good examples of what the arguments were for the broadcasters (the European Broadcasting Union) followed by the push back by the IFFPI (representing the music industry) and finally the FIAP (film industry also pushing back).

Continue Reading →

Below is a cleaned up version of the transcript, from my rambling intervention for KEI on the broadcasting treaty definitions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My comments would be initially on the definitions.

It is our position that it’s more appropriate to provide protection for free services that are traditionally provided by radio and television and less appropriate for pay services,

Continue Reading →

The December 9, 2014 SCCR morning session started with the Chair’s summary of yesterday informals. The delegates discussed 3 charts. The first chart called “a technological platforms chart” is supposed to clarify the scope of protection of the new instrument, the broadcasters’ treaty. The second chart is called “a rights chart”. And additionally, the Chair prepared a third chart which was called a definitions chart, which contained the definitions of broadcasting organization, broadcasting transmission and signal. Continue Reading →

The morning session of SCCR 29 (Dec 8-12, 2014) ended with a coffee break which will be followed by informals (that we are not allowed to report on at this point). After the usual decisions this morning i.e, Adoption of the agenda of the twenty ninth session then Accreditation of new non governmental organizations (and yes, the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP) is in!) we had the Adoption of the Report of the Twenty-Eighth Session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights. Continue Reading →

On Wednesday, 10 December 2014, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) will convene a side event entitled, “The Broadcasting Treaty: A Solution in Search of a Problem?”; the event will take place in Room B of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) from 13:30 to 15:00. Continue Reading →

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,

Continue Reading →