WIPO Broadcast Treaty Talks Slowly Moving Toward Consensus

Negotiations on a treaty updating broadcasting protections against signal piracy inched forward at the Nov. 13-17 World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), participants said Monday. Despite expectations of "business as usual" (see 1710240009), the meeting saw "incremental changes" with resolution of some long-pending questions, said WIPO Copyright Law Division Director Michele Woods, in an interview. European Broadcasting Union Head-Intellectual Property Heijo Ruijsenaars told us earlier he hoped key issues such as scope, objectives and rights had been resolved. Woods said there's forward movement, but work remains.

One change was eliminating the text proposed after the last SCCR meeting (see 1705030020) ended in May, from the current discussion said Woods. Singapore Intellectual Property Office CEO Daren Tang, who chairs the committee, allowed time for discussion and then decided to limit his text, which will be the new working document for the next meeting, to items that are moving toward consensus, she said. The incremental changes also involved some work on the definitions of broadcasting and broadcasting organizations, which are key to reaching consensus on the treaty's scope, objectives and object of protection, she said. These must be agreed upon before the treaty goes to diplomatic conference, she said. All of this is positive but there's "more work to be done for sure," Woods said. There was a "very strong presence" from broadcasters who made a strong case for the treaty, she said.

Pure webcasting (streaming) remains outside the accord, but there was much discussion of deferred services offered by traditional broadcasters and cablecasters, Woods said. These include time-shifting of programming to adapt to various time zones within the same country, or what's known in the U.K. as "catch-up TV," such as the BBC Red Button service that lets customers choose to watch a program within a certain window of time around the program's initial airing, she said.

Argentina, Colombia and Mexico urged delegates at the next SCCR rounds to streamline the discussion on the main provisions with the idea of producing a draft basic proposal in time for a diplomatic conference by spring. "Admittedly, there are outstanding technical and legal details to discuss, but we are not faced with the insurmountable pitfalls that explain the almost twenty years that the SCCR has devoted to its work," they said in a Nov. 8 note. "Pending issues can find concrete solutions within the current Treaty framework."

Talks apparently reassured several concerned countries that cable distributors won't be covered by the treaty, Ruijsenaars said in an interview before the meeting's end. The two days of discussions about broadcasting also appeared to offer more clarity on which on-demand signals should be included, he said. There are no final conclusions on any limitations or exceptions in the treaty, technical protection measures or the term of protection, but this session made it clearer where the treaty is headed, he said.