WIPO Broadcast Treaty Creates New Legal Rights for Broadcasters

An anonymous reader writes "WIPO (The World Intellectual Property Organization) created by the UN is now creating a new copyright for 'broadcast transmissions' giving broadcasters ownership of the content that they broadcast (even if the program being broadcast is in the public domain). IP Justice has created a Top 10 List of reasons to reject this proposal and has published a detailed report that dissects the proposal from a civil liberties and freedom of expression point of view." See our previous story for more information.

Comments

The "perfect enemy"

[swb]

I keep wondering how long it will be until we have the completely formed "perfect enemy" -- that combination of totalitarianism and corporatism all rolled together.

WPDO

[leandrod]

I hereby propose the creation of WOFO -- the World Public Domain, Fair Use, Open Content and Free Software Organisation.

Fuzzy

[z0ink]

Of course I didn't RTFA, but would this mean if I broadcasted the latest RIAA single I would own the rights to a recording of that broadcast? Even if I never owned the rights to the actual songs in the broadcast?

Distributing freely?

[SIGALRM]

This proposal by the UN can, and has been used to define web content distribution.

Seems to indicate that in the case of public domain content, such as a government-created documentary or a very old movie or audio recording--you would not be able to freely store and redistribute that content.

Hand-in-Hand with Broadcast Flag

[william_lorenz]

Seems to me that this goes hand-in-hand with the broadcast flag.

I get it now

[jlaxson]

This is how copyright holders are shoving the First Ammendment up our collective asses. Many of the articles in this treaty are patently unconstitutional. However, international treaty is held to supersede the constitution, thus conveniently bypassing any constitutional protections in place.

Re:So I wonder how they define a "broadcast".

[Anne Thwacks]

Yes - here in the UK, playing music loudly into the street is considered "broadcasting", and requires the payment of royalties. But then, in the UK, signalling to neighbours across the street by opening your curtains is considered to be "transmitting by the modulation of electromagnetic radiation" and requires a licence, or it certainly used to.