WIPO Broadcast Treaty Continues Creep Toward Diplomatic Conference

Efforts to update broadcaster signal protections made limited progress at last week's meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), but are moving toward a diplomatic conference (DipCon), participants told us. In his draft meeting summary, Chairman Daren Tang said talks on definitions, object of protection and rights to be granted were held in informal sessions with a view to clarifying technical issues and delegations' positions. A revised version of the text will be on the agenda for the next SCCR meeting, in spring. Progress was made on several points, we're told, including: (1) Rights to be granted, which seeks to accommodate different legal systems. (2) How to protect certain types of transmissions in particular live events. (3) New language on rights management information, which involves the concept of watermark used in program-carrying signals to monitor the uses made of them. (4) Whether to retain or delete "transmission over computer networks." Talks "started off well," with many delegations pressing to finalize the text to meet WIPO General Assembly instructions aimed at getting to a DipCon in 2020-21, emailed European Broadcasting Union Head-Intellectual Property Heijo Ruijsenaars. Informal discussions involved definitions and the scope of the treaty but then stalled on "lengthy discussions on how to deal with the (rather exceptional) situation where the foreign broadcaster would have no other option than to rely on protection of its programming content, rather than on the protection of its signal," he said. This is a minor issue relevant only to the U.S., and, meanwhile, one of the "big issues" -- protection of online rights -- remains largely unresolved, he said. To not lose momentum, continued drafting work is needed between now and the next meeting, Ruijsenaars said. Nevertheless, the committee moved a step closer to its DipCon goal, he said. The text is "still a mess," but there was very little opposition to moving to DipCon, emailed Knowledge Ecology international Director James Love.