Brief analysis of the proposed WIPO Treaty on Broadcasting

Under Article 14 of the TRIPS Agreetment, broadcasters "shall have the right to prohibit the following acts when undertaken without their authorization: the fixation, the reproduction of fixations, and the rebroadcasting by wireless means of broadcasts, as well as the commmunication to the public of television broadcasts of the same. Where Members do not grant such rights to broadcasting organizations, they shall provide owners of copyright in the subject matter of broadcasts with the possibility of preventing the above acts, subject to the provisions of the Berne Convention (1971)."

The proposed broadcasters' treaty at WIPO seeks to give broadcasters, cablecasters and webcasters ten more additional rights to the three mentioned in the TRIPS Agreement: "The Chairman recalled that the basic analysis of the matters discussed had already taken place during the past eight sessions of the SCCR. At the present moment, the Committee should be mainly focused on the analysis of the new proposals received from different Member States. Thus, he proposed to discuss the packages of rights, or restricted acts or obligations, listed in document CRP/SCCR/9/1 Rev., namely: (1) fixation, (2) reproduction of fixations, (3) distribution of fixations, (4) rebroadcasting (simultaneous), (5) cable retransmission (simultaneous), (6) retransmission over the Internet (simultaneous), (7) deferred broadcasting/cable/Internet transmission based on fixation, (8) making available of fixed broadcasts, (9) communication to the public (in places accessible to the public against entrance fee), (10) obligations regarding technological measures of protection and rights management information. And also, other suggested items, namely: (11) decryption of encrypted broadcasts, (12) rental of fixations and (13) making available of unfixed broadcasts. Items (10) and (11) could be considered obligations and not necessarily exclusive rights." (Source: Report of the 9th Session of the SCCR, WIPO)



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