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[DMCA-Activists] A Law Unto Themselves: WIPO/XCast Treaty
From: |
Seth Johnson |
Subject: |
[DMCA-Activists] A Law Unto Themselves: WIPO/XCast Treaty |
Date: |
Mon, 14 Jun 2004 18:05:21 -0700 |
(Forwarded from James Love's Random Bits list)
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Random-bits] Observor on WIPO Broadcast Treaty: A law unto
themselves
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2004 15:06:37 -0400
From: James Love <address@hidden>
To: address@hidden,ecommerce
<address@hidden>
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1237374,00.html
A law unto themselves
John Naughton
Sunday June 13, 2004
The Observer
'All that is required for evil to triumph,' wrote Edmund Burke, 'is for
good men to do nothing'. His words came to mind last week as I read the
daily reports from Geneva about the meeting of the standing committee on
copyright and related rights of the (Wipo). The meeting was assembled to
discuss a draft treaty to 'protect' broadcasters and broadcasting signals.
For 'protect' read 'unprecedented, restrictive and anti-social powers'.
If enacted, this treaty would require countries to change their laws to
grant broadcasters astonishing freedoms. These include: 'the exclusive
right to authorise or prohibit the fixation [copying/recording] of their
broadcasts'; 'the exclusive right to authorise or prohibit the direct or
indirect reproduction, in any manner or form, of fixations of their
broadcasts'; 'the exclusive right to authorise or prohibit the
retransmission, by wire or wireless means, whether simultaneous or based
on fixations, of their broadcasts'; and other rights, including control
of exhibition and distribution of recordings of broadcasts.
In addition, signatories would be required 'to provide adequate legal
protection and effective legal remedies against the circumvention of
effective technological measures' that are used by broadcasting
organisations to secure their new rights. Most scandalous of all, the
draft proposes that these new rights should apply for 50 years.
This treaty would undermine many of the public's rights under the
copyright laws of most countries. It would, for example, eliminate my
right to record off-air without the permission of a broad caster, or to
copy a recording from one medium to another (eg from tape to DVD).
When I first saw the draft (it was published in April), I assumed it
must have been written by executives at Fox, NBC and other US TV
networks while high on cocaine, because it read like a wish-list of
everything a failing industry could want to protect it from the future.
It is a control-freak's charter. This is predictable, because an
obsession with control has worked its way into the industry's DNA.
Broadcasting is a few-to-many medium: a small number of
content-providers decide what is to be offered, produce the content, and
push it to passive consumers. Central to the broadcasting ethos is a
desire to control the viewer, to restrict choice to the menus chosen by
the industry - like Skinnerian pigeons pecking at coloured levers to
obtain food.
The problem is that emerging digital technologies undermine
control-freakery. Digital TV recorders let viewers create their own
schedules - and automatically skip ads. DVD recorders let viewers make
perfect copies of broadcast movies in an easily accessible form. And so
on. Digital technology empowers consumers, making them less passive. It
makes even couch potatoes sit up. And that is bad news for TV.
Experience over the last decade has shown us how established industries
react when they are threatened by new technology. First they go into
denial. Then they resort to legal countermeasures - which invariably
fail. Finally they nobble legislators, seeking to persuade them to enact
laws that will protect the old business models.
Which is where the draft broadcast treaty comes in. The great thing
about Wipo, from the point of corporate lobbyists and their allies in
certain national governments, is that it offers more bangs per buck.
Instead of having to petition 50 or 100 national legislatures, you
persuade Wipo to propose a draft treaty, which is submitted to a
diplomatic conference and ratified. Then all the signato ries are
obliged to do what you want. This is how the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act was globalised - a Wipo agreement signed back in 1996
became the basis for national laws everywhere embodying the same
anti-circumvention clause.
This is clearly the strategy the broadcasting industry is now embarked
on. The discussions in Geneva sparked a number of reflections. The first
is how compromised Wipo officialdom seems to be: a decision to proceed
to a diplomatic conference is supposed to be made only if there is
substantial agreement at the standing committee.
There was no such consensus last week in Geneva, but Wipo is
nevertheless proceeding as if there were. Why? Because negotiations in a
diplomatic conference will be conducted behind closed doors - away from
the NGOs and the public-domain campaigners who raise awkward questions.
A second observation is how ignorant many national delegates are about
these matters. A third is how refreshingly informed, insightful and
forthright the Indian delegation was. Reading the reports, one sometimes
had the feeling only the Indians understood what is at stake.
Finally, one began to wonder where our own beloved national broadcaster
stands on these issues. The select committee on culture, media and sport
is currently inquiring into the renewal of the BBC charter. The
committee should ask if the BBC is pushing this pestilential draft
treaty. And if so, why?
address@hidden
www.briefhistory.com/footnotes/
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