Stop the Xcasting Treaty

NY Fair Use is organizing a trip to meet with the US Delegation
to WIPO on the Broadcasting Treaty in the next few weeks.  Please
notify us of your wish to take part. Also in attendance, pending
scheduling availability, will be James Love/Manon Ress of CPTech,
EFF International Affairs Director Gwen Hinze, Richard Stallman
of FSF, John Mitchell of InteractionLaw, and Marshall Eubanks,
and others.

See the links below for information on the WIPO Broadcasting
Treaty, which would serve in effect as an international
"broadcast flag treaty."  These links include many comments by
developing nations and numerous non-governmental organizations
speaking for the public interest, presented to little avail at
the recent WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related
Rights.

The US Delegation to WIPO, led by the US Patent and Trademark
Office, is ramrodding this treaty through.

See the comments of the spokesperson for the National Association
of Broadcasters at the just-concluded WIPO meeting on this
treaty.  This is the apparent outlook of the proponents of the
xcasting treaty:
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/ecommerce/2005q4/002205.html

This is not the accustomed situation of competing for the
endorsement and support of legislators against more well-heeled
parties.  In this instance we are dealing with a concerted effort
to render the fundamental precepts embodied in our copyright
tradition moot, through international treaty activity by the
executive branch.

The phrase that comes to my mind as I consider how this treaty
has been pursued, is "Copyright without Representation."

We have executive branch agencies such as the USPTO exercising
the powers they believe they can resort to, acting to establish
exclusive rights policy in a manner that serves as an end run
around the explicit design for exclusive rights in the U.S.
Constitution.  When it's done this way, as a matter of executive
fiat, on the basis of the executive power to make treaties and
outside of the Constitutional provision assigning the power and
responsibility for such policies to Congress, and explicitly
stating that such policies are to be undertaken in service of
general public interest ends, then is it not being done in direct
contravention of fundamental rights and the basic principle of
representation?

I would think that's pretty obvious.  I do know that an approach
that sets exclusive rights policy by executive fiat, imposed by
international treaty activity and thereby trumping the
legislative role, hardly affords the means for bringing the
fundamental design and intention of the provisions in the
Constitution to bear on the matter.

It's time to mobilize.  It's time to issue a wakeup call, to
seize control of our destiny in the digital age, call Congress to
assume their responsibility to craft a free, just and honest
policy, and demand that the US Delegation to WIPO act in a manner
that respects our rights as US citizens and that serves the valid
goals of copyright.  Let us join together and marshal our forces.


Seth Johnson


Links to cite:

First:

1) James Love/CPTech Overview of the Broadcasting Treaty:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love/a-unwipo-plan-to-regulat_b_11480.html

2) Ernest Miller: The Broadcast Flag Treaty:
http://www.corante.com/importance/archives/002925.html


Next Readings:

Letter to Congress Seeking Public Consultation:
http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/101305letter2congress.shtml

National Association of Broadcasters Spokesperson on Public
Interest Considerations:
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/ecommerce/2005q4/002205.html

Letter to Yahoo, the Foremost Sponsor of Webcasting Rights:
http://www.cptech.org/ip/wipo/bt/yahooletter.html

Questions Posed by Civil Society Coalition to WIPO on
Broadcasting Treaty:
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/random-bits/2004-November/001228.html

Letter from Technology Businesses on Webcasting:
http://www.eff.org/IP/WIPO/?f=20041117_open_letter.html

IP Justice's Top Ten Reasons to Reject the Broadcasting Treaty:
http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/top10reasons.shtml

Statement by NGOs on Signal Protection:
NGOs on Signal Protection:
http://www.cptech.org/ip/wipo/bt/ngos11212005.doc

2003 CPTech Analysis:
http://www.cptech.org/ip/wipo/casting-note-29Oct03.html

James Love and Manon Ress Audio Overviews:
http://www.nyfairuse.org/icc/audio/byspeaker/icc-04-3-24-pm-18-jamie-love.ogg
http://www.nyfairuse.org/icc/audio/byspeaker/icc-04-3-25-am-17-manon-ress.ogg


Statements from Most Recent WIPO Meeting on Broadcasting Treaty:

Chile Proposal: http://www.cptech.org/ip/wipo/bt/chile-sccr13.pdf
Brazil Proposal:
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/a2k/2005-November/000743.html

Civil Society Coalition:
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/a2k/2005-November/000758.html
Consumers International:
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/a2k/2005-November/000760.html
Third World Network:
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/a2k/2005-November/000762.html
IP Justice:
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/a2k/2005-November/000756.html
Union for the Public Domain:
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/a2k/2005-November/000759.html
Open Knowledge Foundation:
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/a2k/2005-November/000762.html

Libraries:
http://www.cptech.org/ip/wipo/bt/libraries11232005.html
European Digital Rights:
http://www.cptech.org/ip/wipo/bt/edri112005.html

Other Analyses:

IP Justice:
http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/13_SCCR_112305.shtml
http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/broadcastingtreatyreport2004.shtml

Electronic Frontier Foundation:
http://www.eff.org/IP/WIPO/broadcasting_treaty/webcasting_issues.pdf
http://www.eff.org/IP/WIPO/20041113_TPM_SCCR.pdf
http://www.eff.org/IP/WIPO/20040607_wipo_tpms.pdf

Union for the Public Domain:
http://www.public-domain.org/?q=node/38


News Articles:
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=9&res=1280_ff
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1237374,00.html
http://www.out-law.com/page-4609
http://www.out-law.com/page-5087


Link Pages:
http://www.cptech.org/ip/wipo/bt/
http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/broadcasters.shtml
http://www.eff.org/IP/WIPO/broadcasting_treaty/
http://www.public-domain.org/?q=node/33




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