Blogging WIPO: The New Development Agenda

Posted by Gwen Hinze

Last year the World Intellectual Property Organization adopted a set of 45 ground-breaking proposals on how WIPO should reorient its operations to foster economic and social development within its 182 Member States. The Development Agenda proposals are intended to require WIPO to take a broader approach to promoting creativity and innovation, instead of focusing exclusively on maximizing intellectual property rights.

The Development Agenda asks WIPO to analyze the benefits of a rich and accessible public domain, to protect a robust public domain when it creates new IP norms, and to deliver balanced technical assistance to its members, including information about the flexibilities and options open to Member States to protect the welfare of their citizens. The new mandate also requires WIPO to increase transparency about its work, the consultants it uses, and the information it is providing to its Member States as part of its technical assistance programs. If implemented appropriately, the 45 Development Agenda proposals could result in profound changes at WIPO and in the international community’s understanding of intellectual property regimes.

This week was the first meeting of the new WIPO committee set up to implement the Development Agenda - the Committee on Development and Intellectual Property. It has been charged with formulating a work plan to put development in the mainstream focus of WIPO’s operations and activities. Expectations were naturally high. At week’s end, what we can report is that there was only small progress on concrete aspects of a work plan, and that Member States will continue in informal open-ended discussions between now and the next meeting of the Committee in July. The text of the Chair’s Final Summary of the First Session is below.

What is more interesting and ultimately more important, is the procedure that governed this week’s discussions about how to craft a work plan to implement the Development Agenda. When the WIPO General Assembly agreed to adopt the set of 45 landmark recommendations last October, we believe the outcome it intended was the reorientation of WIPO’s institutional culture, operations and strategic vision to facilitate the economic and social development of all of its Members. That requires first, a recognition that change is required together with a commitment to do it, and second, a means to assess whether change is underway. Unfortunately, that commitment was less present in this week’s discussions.

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Blogging WIPO: What's Next for the Webcasting and Broadcasting Treaties?

Posted by Gwen Hinze

As we reported last Friday, the public interest won a big victory at WIPO's latest meeting on the Broadcasting Treaty. The contentious provisions creating unjustified rights for webcasters and simulcasters will be removed from the treaty. While this is good news, the battle isn't over yet. The remainder of the treaty draft covering "traditional" broadcasters and cablecasters still poses significant problems, and the webcasting and simulcasing proposals are still in play, as a separate draft treaty moving through a slower process. Drafts of the revised broadcasting/ cablecasting and new webcasting/ simulcasting treaties are due by August 1.

Why are the webcasting and simulcasting provisions so worrisome? The treaty would have created new 50 year intellectual property rights over Internet transmissions -- backed by technology mandate laws -- that would stifle technological innovation, impede the free flow of information on the Internet, and create new liability for Internet intermediaries. This might endanger new and existing devices such as TiVos for online radio and Slingboxes, and transferring recorded television to your Video iPod. In addition, creating this new layer of rights above copyright would allow transmitters to restrict re-use of transmitted public domain works or music you created and Creative Commons-licensed.

The same concerns could still arise in the new webcasting and simulcasting treaty, but that won't necessarily be the case. Unlike the current broadcasting treaty draft's expansive intellectual property rights framework, a future treaty could focus on a more limited theft of signal or services approach. That would not require rights to control "fixation" for any length of time, nor rights over post-fixation uses, or technological protection measures. Last week many member states -- including the U.S. -- expressed support for a treaty more focused on signal theft. The U.S. delegation is tasked with producing a signal theft approach proposal before September.

However, it's still possible that webcasting and simulcasting could come back into the "traditional" broadcasting treaty. The U.S. and E.U. delegations stated that if the WIPO General Assembly does not vote in September to hold a 2007 Diplomatic Conference on "traditional" broadcasting and cablecasting, they want webcasting and simulcasting to be part of the package in future talks. That would be a big step backwards. Webcasters and simulcasters could then be given full intellectual property-based rights over Internet transmissions. A lot is now riding on the September General Assembly.

Even if webcasting and simulcasting are out, the remaining "traditional" broadcasting and cablecasting treaty is still bad news. It will be detrimental for technology innovation. It includes broadcaster technological protection measures that will require technology mandate laws like the U.S. FCC Broadcast Flag regulation over televisions, radios and possibly even personal computers. The treaty could create the global legal framework for tech mandate laws that rival the proposed U.S. broadcast and digital radio flag mandates. As EFF, Intel Corp. and many others have noted, the combination of DRM mandates with novel rights raises serious threats to innovative entertainment technologies.

The remaining treaty also raises significant concerns for access to material in the public domain. As demonstrated by the recent deal between the Smithsonian Museum and Showtime, granting transmitters a new layer of rights that apply over and above copyright, and are enforced by legally-sanctioned technological measures, is likely to restrict the public's ability to access public knowledge.

These issues deserve consideration now, not as an afterthought once the "traditional" broadcasting treaty is almost a fait accompli in September.

To get the full story, read the NGO Coalition's notes of last week's meeting after the jump.

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Blogging WIPO: The Development Agenda - Where to From Here?

Posted by Gwen Hinze

The first meeting of WIPO's Provisional Committee on Proposals Related to a Development Agenda (PCDA) has just ended, amidst a last-minute flurry of activity. The question on everyone's mind is where to from here? The answer is not so clear.

After four days of discussions about interesting proposals from Chile, the Africa Group, Colombia, the United States of America and the 15 countries in the Group of Friends of Development, late yesterday the Chair asked countries to "cluster" the 50-or-so proposals currently on the table under five headings, with the goal of shaping discussions at the next PCDA meeting on June 26-30. That meeting must produce recommendations on a Development Agenda for the WIPO General Assembly.

Now we have two lists of proposals: a set of 66 detailed proposals from the Group of Friends of Development, and a list of 45, including proposals from the Africa Group, Chile, Colombia, and the United States. [UPDATE: The combined list of 111 proposals is now posted on WIPO's website.]

Reflecting the hostility underlying the Genevois diplomatic exchanges this week, the Group B developed countries immediately requested a recess for inter-country consultations on receiving the document from the Group of Friends of Development. When the session resumed, the Chair announced that he would hold informal consultations with Member States before the June meeting on a consolidated list of proposals. So now we wait for June.

We'll be blogging the NGO Coalition's notes of today and the rest of the proceedings here shortly.

Updated, 3/10 - we've now posted notes from days 3-5. See also our reports from days 1 and 2.

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