June 08, 2004
WIPO Broadcasting Treaty: SCCR Day 2

Here, dedicated to the public domain, are our joint notes from Day 2 of WIPO Meetings on the Draft Broadcasting Treaty. After the governmental delegations concluded their intial rounds of comments, non-governmental organizations such as EFF were permitted three minute statements. EFF tried to raise concerns about forcing technological protection measures, like the DMCA-endorsed DRM, into yet another sphere.

From Cory's statement:
We believe that the technological measures in Articles 16 and 17 are not required for the protection of broadcasters' signals and thus should not be incorporated in the proposed Treaty. EFF is a co-signer to the NGO statement of principles on the proposed treaty and has submitted a Floor Statement to the Secretariat detailing its views, and will briefly outline its concerns here.

Article 16 opens the door to an unprecedented range of technology mandates which will constrain technology development

Article 16 requires Member Countries to adopt extensive mandates over everyday technologies like televisions, and radios. It envisions broadcasters "marking" broadcasts, cable transmissions and webcasts with something like the American "broadcast flag". All signal-receiving devices -- even personal computers -- will be required to detect and respond to the flag.

Tomorrow's the day when we see whether the broadcasting treaty proposal moves to the next step on the road to treaty-hood, a diplomatic conference, stays with the Standing Committee agenda for further development, or dies.

Posted by Wendy at 02:58 PM