National Conference Call: Thursday, 2:30pm ET

San Francisco - Dozens of companies from the technology and telecommunications sector, public interest groups, and library associations have banded together with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to fight a proposed treaty that would grant broadcasters and cablecasters a new 50-year intellectual property right in their transmissions, regardless of whether they own the copyright in the content being transmitted. The treaty would radically change U.S. law, create liability concerns for Internet service providers and device manufacturers, interfere with the rollout of broadband and home networking services, and restrict citizens' access to information and public domain material.

Thursday's conference call will be hosted by Washington, D.C., public interest group Public Knowledge. Other participants will include EFF International Affairs Director Gwen Hinze, Verizon Communications' Vice President Sarah Deutsch, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) Michael Petricone, and others.

WHAT: Conference call opposing broadcast treaty

WHO: Representatives from EFF, Public Knowledge, Verizon, CEA, and others

WHEN: Thursday, September 7 2:30pm ET

RSVP for phone number and passcode: rebecca@eff.org or abrodsky@publicknowledge.org

For the joint statement by 36 groups in opposition to the broadcast treaty:
http://www.eff.org/IP/WIPO/broadcasting_treaty/wipo-statement-20060905.pdf

Contacts:

Rebecca Jeschke
Media Coordinator
Electronic Frontier Foundation
press@eff.org

Art Brodsky
Communications Director
Public Knowledge
abrodsky@publicknowledge.org

Related Issues