WIPO/broadcasting_treaty

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

http://www.eff.org/effector/19/20.php#I
EFFector Vol. 19, No. 20 May, 2006
A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424

Action Alert - Let the Public Decide Broadcasting Treaty's Fate! 
The United States delegation to the World Intellectual Property 
Organization (WIPO) has been one of the strongest supporters of 
efforts to create a new intellectual property right for 
broadcasters and cablecasters through a new WIPO treaty. If 
adopted, the treaty would give broadcasters, cablecasters and 
potentially webcasting companies 50 years of copyright-like 
rights over anything they transmit, including public domain and 
Creative Commons-licensed works. It would also give broadcasters 
legal protection to use technology to lock down content, giving 
them control over how you use broadcasts received by your 
television, radio and possibly personal computer and control over 
how those devices are designed and built.

The new Broadcasting Treaty is likely to restrict your access to 
knowledge and culture, and it lets broadcasters make decisions 
that should be left in the hands of creators and the public.

EFF and other groups have worked hard in Geneva to fix the 
proposed treaty, but it has been uphill work. We believe it would 
be a terrible mistake for WIPO to create new rights for 
broadcasters, who are merely middlemen, which could restrict what 
ordinary Americans do with their media. We don't think the U.S. 
delegation members have taken the time to hear the views of the 
American public. The delegation should hold a public consultation 
with the American people before it continues to lobby for 
expansive new IP rights.

The two committees in Congress that have responsibility for 
copyright and telecommunications policy are the House and Senate 
Judiciary Committees. If your representative is on one of those 
committees, write now to ask him or her to request the U.S. WIPO 
delegation seek the public's comments.

Take action:
http://action.eff.org/site/Advocacy?id=227

For more on the treaty:
http://www.eff.org/IP/WIPO/broadcasting_treaty/