Protection For Broadcasters, Copyright Exceptions This Week At WIPO

World Intellectual Property Organization members this week are expected to move toward common ground on a treaty protecting broadcasters against piracy. Some members are showing signs of impatience and are pushing for a swift resolution of issues to convene a high-level negotiating meeting in 2018. The WIPO copyright committee will also continue discussing exceptions to copyrights for archives, libraries, and research institutions. New WIPO Deputy Director General for copyright Sylvie Forbin opened the meeting today.

Forbin, the WIPO deputy director general for copyright and creative industries sector, speaking in French, opened the 33rd session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) meeting from 14-18 November. The agenda is here [pdf].

In what she characterised as her baptism of fire, since it was her first official statement at the SCCR, she underlined what she perceived as a will shared by many delegations to finalise discussions on the broadcasting treaty in the near future, considering its maturity.

On exceptions and limitations, she said that the SCCR has already commissioned a number of studies providing detailed analysis of member states’ current legislation. She underlined the presentation [pdf] this week of the final version of a study reviewing limitations and exceptions to national legislation that deal with education activities in WIPO member states by author Daniel Seng.

Forbin said that along with the nine preceding studies carried out in previous years, the SCCR now has the largest and most exhaustive collection of comparative analysis on exceptions and limitations to copyright in the world, which will be an invaluable help in the next steps of the SCCR work.

Access to education, to knowledge, to culture for all and everywhere is a shared objective, Forbin said. The question is how to build on this consensus to resolve divergences on modalities, she added. It is important to meet together the essential challenge of access to knowledge for all, she said.

Argentina, Colombia, Mexico Press for Diplomatic Conference

For this session, Argentina submitted a Note on the Draft Treaty to Protect Broadcasting Organizations [pdf], co-sponsored by Colombia and Mexico. The document calls for a swift resolution of main issues so that a high-level negotiating meeting (diplomatic conference) be convened by the spring of 2018 at the latest.

“Admittedly, there are outstanding technical and legal details to discuss, but we are not faced with the insurmountable pitfalls that explain the almost twenty years that the SCCR has devoted to its work. On the contrary, pending issues can find concrete solutions within the current Treaty framework,” the note says.

This week, delegates are expected to work from a Revised Consolidated Text on Definitions, Object of Protection, and Rights to be Granted [pdf] prepared by SCCR Chair Martin Moscoso of Peru, and try to agree on what the treaty should protect, and how.

One of the main issues of the SCCR discussions on the broadcasting treaty is that some countries, such as India, would like to protect broadcasting in the traditional sense, thus excluding internet-based broadcasting, while others, such as the European Union, would like the treaty to be adapted to recent technologies, including internet television, and on-demand programmes.

Exceptions and Limitations to Copyright, New Argentinean Proposal

Argentina also submitted a new proposal [pdf] on limitations and exceptions for libraries and archives, educational and research institutions and for persons with other disabilities than visual impairment.

The document suggests a general scheme of exceptions and limitations to facilitate international harmonisation in the use of works, mainly literary, by combining the principles of international uniformity and coordination.

The proposed rules would be as follows:

“Where performed in accordance with the exceptions and limitations set forth in this agreement, the reproduction or making available of a work shall be governed by the law of the country in which the reproduction or making available occur, without precluding the reproduced work from being delivered to or used by a person or institution benefitting from exceptions and limitations located in another Member State, provided that such delivery or use is consistent with the terms and conditions set forth in this agreement.”

Work of the SCCR on exceptions and limitations to copyright has been hampered by the difference in perception of what is needed at the international level. Developing countries are saying that an international treaty is needed, in particular to address cross-border issues in the digital age. Some developed countries, on the contrary, find that the current international copyright framework provides enough space to carve out exceptions and limitations.

United States Hanging Back

The US delegate said the US has recently gone through an election process, and as the country moves through “the orderly process of transition from one administration to another, we will no doubt be asked and will provide an analysis of the broadcasters’ treaty agenda item, taking into account, as comprehensively as we can, the differences in legal traditions around the world and applicable laws at the national level with respect to broadcasting protection, the rapid and continuing changes in broadcasting technology, and, of course the viewpoints of all stakeholders that are implicated in this treaty initiative.”

“If you find us, therefore, a little bit quieter at this session, it is because we are listening carefully as we undertake that stock-taking exercise on our part,” he said.

 

Image Credits: WIPO