10 August 2012: The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Broadcast Treaty—which is a restrictive copyright treaty that aims to create and extend rights to signals of broadcasters and webcasters—is back, reports the Electronic Frontiers Foundation. Although it has been revamped, it still incorporates the two most controversial proposals from the original treaty text. As concluded by an analysis comissioned by UNESCO back in 2006:
“[T]he Draft Broadcasting Treaty would give broadcasters and cablecasters (and possibly webcasters) broad rights which in parallel with technological measures and ambiguity as to protected subject-matter could prevent or restrict the flow of information with respect to materials which may not be protected by copyright, such as news of the day, or which are in the public domain, because their term of protection has expired or in relation to materials created by third parties who do not wish to prevent dissemination of the latter. Thus, the Draft Treaty may undermine the balance between the economic interests of broadcasting and cablecasting organizations and freedom of expression values.”
Read more about the WIPO Broadcast Treaty from the Electronic Frontiers Foundation ‘Deeplinks’ Blog at https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/08/negotiations-2014-wipo-broadcasting-treaty-are-back