World Copyright Treaty Coming soon

ebresie writes: "According to an article in Info World, the World Intellectual Property Organization indicates that the WIPO Copyright Treaty is scheduled to go into effect in March of 2002. The treaty "is designed to protect the rights of composers, artists, writers, and others whose work is distributed over the Internet or other digital media." It also makes reference of the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty which "specifically protects the digital-media rights of producers and performers of sound recordings"." This is not a "new" treaty; rather it's the old one, which says much the same thing as the DMCA and was used to justify the passage of the DMCA. Now the same provisions will be in effect across many countries.

Comments

this isn't too new.

[psyklopz]

As it stands currently, copyright law is *almost* international.

Each nation has their own copyright laws, but almost all are either:

1) parties to the Berne Copyright Convention

or

2) Members of the World Trade Organisation

If your country belongs to either of these, it is already bound by a pseudo-international copyright law.

The only countries not parties to these two conventions probably don't care much about copyright to begin with.

So, I don't think that an international treaty will change very much at all.

United Nations members

[eclectric]

In the United States, the representative to the United Nations is an ambassador, which means the President chooses him or her. I imagine they have to confirmed by the senate, but I don't think it's every much of an issue.

Re:GPL - for other works

[Trepidity]

Well, the GNU Free Documentation License is probably closer to what you're looking for as a starting point.

Re:Maybe the reds...

[Tackhead]

> Maybe China will, for once, actually help stem the tide, since they have such lax laws. [on copyright]

I wouldn't bank on it.

"Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against - then you'll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We're after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens' What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of law-breakers - and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."

- p.411, Ayn Rand, ATLAS SHRUGGED, Signet Books, NY, 1957

You don't have to be a Randroid to see the wisdom in this passage.