Re: WIPO Broadcasting Treaty Survey -- call for volunteers

Hibbs, Phil wrote:

>>...a treaty that gives them new powers over material already 
>>in the public domain.
> 
> 
> Any broadcast of a public domain work is the copyright 'property' of the
> broadcaster, as it counts as a derivative work. A derivative of a public
> domain work is protected by copyright.
> 
> There may be much to object to in this treaty, but this particular arguement
> needs to be better expressed. There may be a substantive point to be made
> here, along the lines that it may come to pass that the only existing copies
> of PD works are broadcaster-owned derivatives, and that that is not for the
> common good.


The fundamental question here is surely: why is copyright not enough ?

-- if a broadcaster is showing a film which is out of copyright, why 
should it be prohibited to record it off air ?  Or for a cable operator 
to subsequently re-broadcast it ?

-- similarly, what about fair use ?  There don't seem to be any 
provisions to protect fair use in the treaty.


I can see that there is an argument for giving the broadcaster the 
presumptive standing to take legal action to go after copyright 
infringers off their own bat (unless this is expressly countermanded by 
the copyright owner).

But I fail to see why the broadcaster is supposed to need any other 
legal sanction ?