Wipo and the War against the Internet: Some resources

Posted on:: January 4th, 2006

The remarkable Seth Johnson, corresponding secretary of New Yorkers for Fair Use, has put together a set of resources for people interested in how the US delegation to WIPO is leading one particular battle in the War against the Internet. Our representatives are pushing to create a new right, based on a right granted broadcasters 44 years ago. Before you could copy or reproduce in any form material that you found on the Web, you would have to get the permission not only of the copyright owners but of whomever published the content online. This would apply even if you were reproducing material in the public domain. “Webcasters” (i.e., anyone who posts anything on the Web) would be granted this control automatically for 50 years after they post any content. Creating this new right would require that digital rights management be installed everywhere. Yahoo is the most visible promoter of the proposal, according to an excellent article by James Love, which concludes:

Both the broadcasters and the webcasters claim that they are just trying to curb piracy. Well, if the works they broadcast or webcast are copyrighted, we already have lots of laws and treaties for that, including for the example the two 1996 WIPO Copyright treaties (the WCT and the WPPT)…
In the words of the treaty critics, the treaty proponents are guilty of piracy of the knowledge commons. They are seeking to claim ownership rights in works they did not create, and which today they do not own. They want something different from copyright, and different from the legal regime that exists in any country. They want to own what they simply transmit.

Here is Seth’s list of resources:
1) James Love: The UN/WIPO Plan to Regulate Distribution of Info
on the Net
2) Ernest Miller: The Broadcast Flag Treaty
3) James Boyle: More Rights are Wrong for Webcasters

Next Readings

Letter to Congress Seeking Public Consultation
National Association of Broadcasters Spokesperson on Public
Interest Considerations
Letter to Yahoo, the Foremost Sponsor of Webcasting Rights
Questions Posed by Civil Society Coalition to WIPO on
Broadcasting Treaty
Letter from Technology Businesses on Webcasting
IP Justice’s Top Ten Reasons to Reject the Broadcasting Treaty
Statement by NGOs on Signal Protection
2003 CPTech Analysis
James Love and Manon Ress Audio Overviews [1] [2]