WIPO copyright committee meets, U.S., South Africa push for online signal protections

The United States and South Africa continued to push for protections against online signal piracy as part of the proposed World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Broadcasting Treaty, which delegates discussed this week at the WIPO copyright committee in Geneva, Switzerland. The U.S. delegation at the committee said the treaty must be “technologically neutral” and address online signal theft and webcasting piracy. The WIPO copyright committee agreed last year to continue to work on a “signal-based approach” for the development of a new international broadcasting treaty. Many countries, including India and Japan, as well as pro-Internet lobby groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, have staked out positions against new protections that could impact Internet transmissions. During a plenary session Wednesday at a meeting of WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, the U.S. delegation said a treaty that does not address Internet activities would not be worth it. “In our view, a treaty that does not provide protection against signal theft using forms of new technology would not be worth concluding in the 21st century,” U.S. delegate Shira Perlmutter said at the meeting. “Any treaty protecting traditional broadcasting should be technologically neutral with respect to the manner in which the piracy is accomplished.” Perlmutter added: “Those delegates that are not yet ready to go beyond protection for traditional broadcasters may nevertheless find it important to protect their traditional broadcasters against unscrupulous actors who stream their signal over the Internet.” Canada's proposal to the committee, submitted in March 2011, did not indicate a position on protections for webcasting. Stephen Waddell, executive director of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), said in an interview Thursday that treaty rules for conventional broadcasting should also apply online. “Irrespective of the screen or the platform, broadcasting is broadcasting,” Waddell said. “It just doesn’t make any sense to make a distinction between conventional broadcasting and online broadcasting.” Canada's delegation is expected to discuss its proposals for the treaty at the committee next week. South Africa, which tabled a joint proposal with Mexico this spring, also spoke at the meeting Wednesday, telling the committee that most member states agree that signal piracy should be addressed on non-traditional platforms. “If we say we limit the protection to traditional broadcasting organizations, we are ignoring the problem,” said Mashilo Boloka, speaking for the South Africa delegation. Boloka agreed with the U.S. that the treaty should be technology neutral because industry cannot anticipate the new technologies that will emerge. “As long as the technologies for transmitting broadcasting services are used by traditional broadcasters in accordance with the GA mandate, they need to get protection,” Boloka said. Boloka said that without a broadcasting treaty, the work accomplished at the WIPO Diplomatic Conference on the Protection of Audiovisual Performance, which three weeks ago resulted in the approval of the Beijing Treaty, will amount to nothing. The Beijing Treaty seeks to strengthen copyright protections for performers. Manuel Guerra, speaking for the Mexico delegation, agreed at the meeting Wednesday, saying that broadcasting signals are related to other rights in the Beijing Treaty. “Therefore, if we protect the signals, then we are thereby protecting all the other rights also, copyright, performers’ rights, and so on,” he said. Waddell agreed that the two go hand-in-hand. “The performance rights, or the Audiovisual Performance Treaty, are difficult to enforce unless broadcasters have rights to protect their own signal from piracy,” he said. Erica Redler, an independent broadcast consultant who represents the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) on WIPO issues and is attending the committee meetings in Geneva, said in an email to The Wire Report that delegations are emphasizing retransmission, including over the Internet and simulcasting. “Most broadcasting organizations have taken the position that protection on the Internet is critically important,” Redler wrote. The momentum for a new WIPO broadcasting treaty focused on signal rights could lead to a new broadcasting retransmission right for members of the organization, including Canada. Canada's position on the issue is to call for an opt-out provision from a new right, though the CRTC's value for signal policy—under consideration at the Supreme Court of Canada—would effectively create a new right by giving local, conventional broadcasters the power to pull their signals and negotiate “value” for their carriage by broadcast distributors. The drafting of a WIPO broadcast treaty with a new signal right took place during two special sessions in Geneva in January and June 2007, where member states met to finalize a proposed treaty under a “signal-based approach.” The effort failed due to a lack of consensus on what rights broadcasters should be given. dgrenier@thewirereport.ca

WIPO copyright committee meets, U.S., South Africa push for online signal protections

News | 07/20/2012 7:56 pm EDT

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