UN World Intellectual Property Organization Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasts and Broadcasting Organizations

by | Sep 12, 2006 | Blog


I am sure everyone receives those emails where the alarm is sounded and people are told something is in the works you need to weigh in on, only to dig a bit deeper to find it is a dead issue from 1974. I hate when that happens probably more then most and try to vet things as much as any 1 person can. That’s why when I tell you this is a serious issue I hope that rings true.

The UN Treaty here that is being passed around for final inspection if ratified will change the way that copyright is interpreted and handled as much (and in many ways more then) the Millennium Copyright Act that basically neutered public domain for the rest of your life and most of your children’s. The many points to this treaty can be found here, but the biggest crux is that if ratified it will encapsulate all copyright and creative commons work with an additional “broadcasters copyright” which will force any user of IP to get in writing the ok of not only the IP owner but the corporation that broadcast it (in absolutely any media format) before they can do anything to it, even index it, and this is an extremely important point for everyone but more so Podcasters.

This is something that shouldn’t pass and needs a public death to put a freeze in this kind of singular interest lawmaking. The people who are pushing this Treaty the hardest is the US and we don’t all agree on it. If we pull the treaty will die. Please read the document and the abstract and decide for yourself if this is something you would want to have law. If not please contact your representatives in your own fashion or go here and fill out a form to direct it to the correct individuals. This is important, the vote is in 2 weeks.

The treaty which is not only raising the ire of the online community also lists as its opponents:

American Association of Law Libraries
American Library Association
Association of Research Libraries
AT&T
Broadband Service Providers Association
Center for Democracy & Technology
Cingular Wireless
Computer and Communications Industry Association
Consumer Electronics Association
Consumer Project on Technology
CTIA – The Wireless Association
Dell Inc.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
FreePress
Hewlett Packard Company
Home Recording Rights Coalition
Intel Corporation
International Music Managers Forum
Internet Society
IP Justice
Media Access Project
Medical Library Association
National Association of State PIRGs
Panasonic Corporation of North America
Public Knowledge
RadioShack Corporation
Special Libraries Association
Sony Electronics Incorporated
TiVo Inc.
Union for the Public Domain
U.S. Internet Industry Association
U.S. Music Managers Forum
U.S. Public Interest Research Group
USTelecom
Verizon Communications Inc.
Verizon Wireless
Yale Information Society Project

Christopher Hudgens
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