A World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) panel begins consideration today (Mon.) of several sticky copyright issues. One agenda item at the June 23-27 meeting of the Standing Committee on Copyright & Related Rights is a proposal that WIPO craft a new treaty updating broadcast rights for the Digital Age. Broadcasters have been pushing for global protection for electronic signals carrying radio and TV programs in order to stop piracy of the signals and to maintain territorial exclusivity. What has engendered debate, however, is the issue of whether Webcasting signals should be included in such a treaty. In May, the U.S. submitted a revised proposal that, among other things, would let broadcasters, cablecasters and Webcasters authorize and prohibit the rebroadcast of their programs or their retransmission via computer, or defer transmission for public reception. The U.S. proposal also would declare that signatories provide “adequate and effective” legal remedies against the circumvention of technological measures. Late last week, Consumer Project on Technology (CPT) Dir. James Love asked U.S. delegates to the committee to “clarify both the U.S. govt. objectives in the treaty negotiations and explain how key features of the proposed treaty would work.” CPT has 2 main questions, Love said: (1) Whether it’s in the public interest to “shrink the public domain” by extending broadcasters’ rights from the 20 years required by the Trade- Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement to a new 50-year term. (2) Whether the U.S. definition of Webcasting will be limited to a subset of special TV or radio-like activities taking place on the Internet or will create a new right that can be “used to extend to more general operations of listserves, downloadable Web pages” and other online activities. “If the proposed treaty embraces a broad definition of Internet activities, it would effectively create a new mechanism to assign exclusive rights to materials now in the public domain?” Love wrote. “This would be a bad outcome.”
The FTC used reauthorization hearings in the House and Senate Wed. to push a sweeping proposal that, among other things, would end the 70-year exemption of telecom common carriers from FTC deceptive practices and unfair competition rules. The proposal prompted wariness from some House lawmakers, who worried about potential clashes between that agency and the FCC. Others questioned whether recommendations aimed at stepping up the FTC’s ability to fight cross-border fraud and spam via more extensive information-gathering and sharing powers raised privacy concerns.
Unless proved otherwise, existing copyright law -- properly enforced -- is the way to deal with peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing, House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet & Intellectual Property (IP) Chmn. Smith (R- Tex.) said Tues. Govt.-mandated controls on P2P technologies are “hard to write, easy to ignore and hard to repeal if unintended consequences harm the marketplace,” Smith said at a Progress & Freedom Foundation (PFF) conference on “Promoting Markets in Creativity: Copyright in the Internet Age.” However, he acknowledged there was no way to completely protect IP rights.
The U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., refused Wed. to stay a lower court order requiring Verizon Internet Services Inc. to reveal the identities of 2 subscribers alleged to have committed massive online music copyright infringement. In a one-page order, the appeals court said Verizon “has not shown so great a likelihood of success on the merits as to outweigh the clearly greater harm that would accrue to [RIAA] if the stay were granted.” The ruling means the ISP must divulge its customers’ information even as it pursues an appeal of the district court’s Jan. 23 order directing it to comply with a subpoena issued under Sec. 512(h) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Not surprisingly, RIAA Pres. Cary Sherman applauded the Wed. order, saying it “confirms our long-held position that music pirates must be held accountable for their actions and not be allowed to hide behind the company that provides their Internet service.” Verizon intends to comply with RIAA’s subpoenas “within the next 24 hours or so,” said Vp & Assoc. Gen. Counsel-Internet Policy Sarah Deutsch. At this point, she said, the ISP “feels it has no choice but to comply.” However, Deutsch said, the ISP is still concerned about the privacy, due process and safety issues it has raised, given RIAA’s stated intent to serve many DMCA subpoenas on Verizon and other service providers. Those issues may be addressed in a bill said to be on the way from Sen. Brownback (R-Kans.), she said. One section of the measure would require anyone who produces a digital media product to obtain a subpoena after filing a lawsuit in order to obtain the names of alleged infringers. Brownback’s office didn’t return a call by our deadline. The underlying appeal is set for oral argument before the D.C. Circuit Sept. 16 at 9:30 a.m.
Copyright owners, Webcasters and radio broadcasters announced May 8 that they had reached agreement on royalty rates for the use of sound recordings and related ephemeral recordings in broadcast simulcasts for 2003-2004. In a joint petition to the U.S. Copyright Office, the groups -- which include RIAA, the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada, the American Federation of TV & Radio Artists, the Digital Media Assn. (DiMA), Music Choice, Bonneville International Corp., Clear Channel, the National Religious Bcstrs. Music License Committee, Salem Communications and Susquehanna Radio -- said they had settled their dispute over fees and asked the office to amend proposals submitted last month. If approved, the agreement will allow nonsubscription services other than business establishment services to choose between: (1) An option of 0.0762 cents per performance for all digital audio transmissions, excluding 4% of performances to approximate the number of partial performances of nominal duration made due to, for example, technical interruptions. (2) An aggregate tuning hour option, under which licensees would pay 0.0762 cents for nonmusic programming such as news, talk and sports; 0.88 cents for broadcast simulcasts; or 1.17 cents for programming other than simulcasts and nonmusic programming. Subscription services would be permitted to choose either of those options or a percentage of subscription service revenue option of 10.9% of revenue but no less than 27 cents per month per person who subscribed to the service for all or part of a month. Business establishment services would pay for ephemeral recordings at a rate of 10% of their gross proceeds derived from the use in their service of musical programs attributable to copyrighted recordings. The groups asked the Copyright Office to stay the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel proceeding in the matter involving commercial entities, saying a stay would “achieve the congressional objective of facilitating voluntary settlements rather than hindering their implementation.” The royalty rates set out in last week’s filing are the same as those reached last month with DiMA, RIAA Senior Vp-Business Affairs Steven Marks said. The new agreement differs from the earlier one primarily in that it now includes rates not only for Webcasters but also for broadcasters and background music services -- with which agreement was reached only in the last week or so, Marks said.
The European Union (EU) Tues. unveiled its offer for the Doha round of World Trade Organization talks. The EU proposed to open its markets to 3rd countries in several sectors, including telecom and computer services. The offer focuses particularly on giving services providers from developing countries better access to European markets, the European Commission (EC) said. In the area of telecom, the EU offered to guarantee 3rd countries’ operators full access to the internal market, while protecting the EU’s right to define its universal service objectives. The offer also would remove restrictions such as (1) the prohibition against telcos’ engaging in nontelecom activities (computer-related services) in Greece, (2) restriction on foreign ownership in Portugal or (3) bans against providing telecom services across borders in several member states. In computer services, the EU said it would give full market access to foreign service providers, including highly skilled, self- employed computer experts. For example, the EC said, foreign computer experts will be allowed to enter the EU temporarily to maintain and repair computer systems and networks. The EU made no new commitment on audiovisual services, maintaining privileged treatment for, among other things, audiovisual works originating from the EU and other European countries.
A federal court Thurs. handed the recording industry a major victory in a closely watched case challenging the constitutionality of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) subpoena provisions. In a lengthy opinion, U.S. Dist. Judge John Bates, D.C., denied requests by Verizon Internet Services for a stay, pending appeal, of an order forcing the ISP to divulge the identity of an alleged massive online infringer, and to quash a 2nd subpoena seeking information on additional claimed cyperpirates. Bates stayed his order for 14 days to give Verizon time to seek relief from the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C.
The U.S. govt. late last week backed RIAA’s attempt to force Verizon to divulge personal information on alleged online music infringers. The Dept. of Justice (DoJ)intervened in Verizon Internet Services Inc. v. RIAA because the ISP was questioning the constitutionality of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). In an April 18 brief filed in U.S. Dist. Court, D.C., in response to Verizon’s challenge to a 2nd DMCA subpoena from RIAA, DoJ disputed the ISP’s constitutional claims. The idea that a DMCA subpoena is unenforceable because it’s issued outside any pending lawsuit “fails for at least 3 reasons,” Justice said: (1) Nothing in the article bars Congress from authorizing the clerk of a federal “Article III” court from issuing a subpoena unless a case actually is pending there. (2) The idea of prelitigation discovery to obtain and preserve information for future litigation “is not new” and has been permitted by Congress. (3) Sec. 512(h), as a practical matter, is “tethered to a controversy” between RIAA and Verizon because the provision gives copyright holders a statutory right to obtain certain information from ISPs. While it’s “not atypical” for the govt. to become involved in cases in which the constitutionality of a federal law is challenged, Verizon is “disappointed” about DoJ’s decision to intervene on RIAA’s side, said Sarah Deutsch, vp and assoc. gen. counsel-Internet policy. Verizon asked U.S. Dist. Judge John Bates, who is handling the 2 DMCA subpoena matters, for permission to respond by Fri. to the Justice filing, Deutsch told us. RIAA opposed the request, and the judge hasn’t ruled.
U.S. insistence on building stringent intellectual property (IP) protections into multilateral and bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) could have unintended consequences here and abroad, speakers said Mon. at a meeting on “Making Intellectual Property Law through Trade Negotiations?” The FTAs have become a key issue for program producers, with the MPAA seen playing a major role in the process, speakers said.
The information technology (IT) and telecom markets are in “reconstruction mode” and investors are just beginning to “come out of their shells,” said Richard Lukaj, pres., Babcock Capital Partners. He spoke at a panel on technology needs of the telecom and IT industry at the International Finance Corp. (IFC) Global Technology Conference 2003 Wed. Venture capitalists have “very much gone back to the basics” in deciding what to invest in, he said. It’s much tougher to find financing for raw, pre-beta (testing) technologies, Lukaj said. However, he said, the woes of the developed IT markets are creating new opportunities for emerging markets.