Nine non-governmental organizations (NGOs) urged delegates to rej...

to update broadcaster protections, is being debated this week at a special WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) meeting. One outcome could be agreement to proceed to a high-level conference (CD June 19 p4). Broadcast and cablecast signals are protected by law, and WIPO should not create new economic rights for those companies, the groups said. The link between the treaty and the Internet is “highly problematic,” because establishment of non-copyright controls over reuses of information online will harm access to knowledge, they said. The draft calls for broadcasters to get exclusive rights to authorize retransmission or deferred transmission by any means to the public of fixed transmissions. The opponents included the Civil Society Coalition, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Electronic Information for Libraries, European Digital Rights, International Federation of Library Associations, IP Justice, Knowledge Ecology International, Public Knowledge and Third World Network. Wednesday’s session was like “watching water boil,” said Sarah Deutsch, Verizon vice president and associate general counsel. SCCR Chairman Jukka Liedes tossed NGOs out of the room early in the day to move from a formal, article-by-article discussion to more informal talks, she said., and talks ran into the evening. Verizon still says that if broadcasters have an issue to resolve, it should be done via a narrow signal-theft treaty, Deutsch said. The latest document distills over 100 pages into around 10, but still gives broadcasters the most important right, that of authorizing retransmission, she said. Talks seemed to stall at around 10 p.m. over U.S. support for including the phrase “by any means” in the draft, said Thiru Balasubramaniam, Knowledge Ecology International Geneva representative. For India, Brazil and other developing countries, and many technology sector players and public interest NGOs, the phrase “would leave open the specter of webcasting and simulcasting” returning to the proposed instrument, upending the intent simply to protect against signal theft over traditional platforms, he said.