Progress on broadcasters' treaty

Your stuff is still going to be ripped off the web whether you like or not.....


Representatives of nine broadcasting associations from around the world have just met in Geneva to assess the progress that is being made towards their goal of an international treaty to protect broadcasters' rights to be concluded under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Speaking after the meeting Moira Burnett of the European Broadcasting Union
said: "There is now a fair chance that WIPO will call a Diplomatic Conference in 2005 on the basis that further work on the protection of webcasters will be postponed until after the broadcasters' treaty has been adopted."

Starting today government experts at WIPO will be meeting in Geneva to consider a consolidated text which brings together the proposals made by individual governments over the last six years. It will be for governments to decide when the stage has been reached at which the date for a Diplomatic Conference should be set. The question of inclusion of protection for webcasters has found virtually no support from governments, which would prefer to give priority to broadcasters' rights at this stage and to consider webcaster issues later on.

The nine broadcasting associations referred to are the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Europe (ACT), Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU), European Broadcasting Union (EBU), North American National Broadcasters Association (NABA), National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), Union of National Radio and Television Organizations of Africa (URTNA), National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan (NAB-Japan), Televisa, Mexico.