WIPO Copyright Committee: Broadcasting, Exceptions, Stronger Artists’ Rights

This week, World Intellectual Property Organization members are picking up discussions on a possible treaty to protect broadcasting organisations against signal piracy. Also on the agenda is exceptions and limitations to copyright for certain users. And proposals for two new topics for committee discussion are expected to be considered.

The 32^nd session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) is taking place from 9-13 May.

WIPO Director General Francis Gurry opened by urging members to find agreement on the topics that have been on the agenda for years, and welcomed the proposals to explore new areas in the committee.

The agenda [pdf] of this week’s session includes long-addressed topics such as a potential treaty to protect broadcasting organisations, and copyright exceptions for libraries, archives, educational and research institutions, and for persons with disabilities other than visual impairment.

New Topics

The agenda includes proposals tabled at the last session of the SCCR in December, for other topics to be discussed by the committee.

These include a proposal [pdf] from the Group of Latin American and Caribbean countries (GRULAC), suggesting that work be undertaken by the SCCR on challenges arising from the use of intellectual property rights in the digital environment.

The document, as presented by the Brazilian delegation on behalf of the group in December, seeks to identify common solutions to deal with new digital services and technologies that have emerged since the adoption of WIPO Copyright Treaty and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT), the so-called 1996 “WIPO internet treaties” (IPW, WIPO, 14 December 2015).

The other proposal [pdf], tabled by Senegal and Congo, concerns resale right, which refers to royalties paid to visual artists by third parties, such as auction houses, when their work of art is resold.

Senegal, which presented the proposal, said the resale right is recognised in the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, and that some 80 countries have the right enshrined in their legislation. However, at present, large art markets such as the United States, China, and Switzerland do not have resale right.

Exceptions and Limitations to Copyright

Another main issue discussed at the SCCR, pushed by developing countries and resisted by developed countries, is how to create exceptions and limitations to copyright for libraries, archives, educational and research institutions, and people with disabilities other than visual impairment.

Two documents referring to those issues are on the table: a Working Document [pdf] Containing Comments on and Textual Suggestions Towards an Appropriate International Legal Instrument (in whatever form) on Exceptions and Limitations for Libraries and Archives; and a Provisional Working Document [pdf] Towards an Appropriate International Legal Instrument (in Whatever Form) on Limitations and Exceptions for Educational, Teaching and Research Institutions and Persons with other Disabilities Containing Comments and Textual Suggestions (IPW, WIPO, 17 December 2015).

Broadcast Protection

This session of the SCCR is the last before the annual WIPO General Assembly in October, which could decide on the convening of a diplomatic conference (high-level negotiating meeting) in 2017 to agree on a broadcasting treaty.

According to a WIPO background brief, “signal piracy can take physical form, such as unauthorized recordings of broadcasts on video tapes, DVDs or USB sticks, or it can be virtual, such as the unauthorized redistribution of signals over the air or online.” It adds: “Hacking into encrypted pay-TV signals with equipment designed to circumvent the security measures in set-top boxes is another common form of piracy, while live sports broadcasts have been a particular target for unauthorized retransmission on the Internet.”

In 2007, WIPO’s General Assembly agreed to pursue a “signal-based approach” to drafting a new treaty, to ensure that provisions on signal theft in themselves did not give broadcasters additional rights over programme content.

Over 10 years in the making, the potential treaty seems to appeal to most countries but consensus has not been reachable on core issues, such as what the treaty is expected to cover. One of the issues is whether or not the treaty should be adapted to technological developments that did not exist at the beginning of the discussions on the matter, such as internet-based catch-up television, or internet live stream signals from traditional broadcasters.

Some developing countries, such as members of the Asia and Pacific Group, insist that the protection should be limited to a signal-based approach in the traditional sense.

Delegates this week started working from a Revised Consolidated Text [pdf] on Definitions, Object of Protection, and Rights to be Granted, prepared by SCCR Chair Martin Moscoso of Peru. The text includes several alternatives.

For example, in the Object of Protection, one alternative proposes that broadcasting organisations would be protected for simultaneous and near simultaneous transmissions by any means, while the other alternative offers the same but adds that countries may limit protection of deferred transmissions.

Moscoso today said the Revised Consolidated Text is not a compilation of all points of views but an attempt at finding consensus language. Some countries today felt that the consolidated text did not give a faithful representation of all suggestions for consensus text, such as Brazil on cablecasting organisations, and Japan on signals transmitted over computer networks.

At the end of the first day of the meeting, several delegations agreed with Moscoso that informal discussions on the language of the consolidated text might be a way forward, as of tomorrow morning.

A draft treaty text [pdf] has been on the table for years, and delegates are trying to address core issues before getting back to the full text.

Separately, according to the Summary by the Chair [pdf] of the last session in December, Moscoso proposed to hold an extraordinary session of the committee on protection for broadcasting organisations and to hold regional meetings on the subject of limitations and exceptions for libraries and archives. No consensus could be achieved on this proposal, and it was expected to be discussed again this week.

In their opening statement today, the African Group supported the chair’s proposal.

 

Image Credits: WIPO