With WIPO Broadcast Treaty Delayed, Some Criticize Opaque Informal Talks

Controversy flared this week during talks on a treaty to update broadcasting protections for the digital age. Formal negotiations by the World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) remain stalled due to COVID-19, but some member countries and observers were “quite shocked” to discover that an informal “friends of the chair” group had met twice this year to work on treaty language, emailed Knowledge Ecology Online Geneva Representative Thiru Balasubramaniam. The group, which had lain dormant during the COVID-19 pandemic, met before the Monday-Thursday partly virtual meeting. In his meeting summary, acting Chair Abdoul Aziz Dieng said he would consider concerns raised about the informal talks.

Several delegations pressed Dieng to make the informal panel more transparent and inclusive, according to the first day archived webcast. Chile said it was “surprised” by the report of the group's discussions and regretted not being informed about them or included. Indonesia, backed by Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, worried that without a change of composition (current members are Argentina, Colombia, the EU, Finland, Germany, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, the Philippines, South Korea, Russia and the U.S.), questions about transparency won't be addressed. Dieng said he wants good balance and inclusivity, but allowing all delegations to take part would create confusion. Before the next SCCR meeting, the group will work on possible compromise text for members to consider, said SCCR Vice-Chair Peter Labody.

Dieng said he would “take the views expressed during the session on the modalities of the informal work into consideration, including the need to uphold the principles of transparency and inclusivity.” During the existence of the friends' group there was no attempt to carry out negotiations through it, WIPO Copyright Law Division Director Michele Woods told us. Moreover, she said, the annotated agenda clearly noted that formal talks will resume at the next SCCR meeting, expected to take place in 2022. Any text for negotiation will be presented to the full SCCR for discussion; the current working document is one prepared by the chair and the intention is to keep working with that document at the next session held under “normal” conditions, Woods added.

More problematic than the friends' group is “that we must wait so long” for the next SCCR meeting, emailed European Broadcasting Union Intellectual Property Head Heijo Ruijsenaars: “Time is running out.” All items will return on the next agenda, but that won't be before 2022, he said. Given the disruption caused by the pandemic, the SCCR should ask WIPO officially to reset the time-frame for a diplomatic conference to 2022-2023, said the North American Broadcasters Association.