Action Alert - Let the Public Decide Broadcasting Treaty's
Fate!
The United States delegation to the World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO) has been one of the strongest
supporters of efforts to create a new intellectual property
right for broadcasters and cablecasters through a new WIPO
treaty. If adopted, the treaty would give broadcasters,
cablecasters and potentially webcasting companies 50 years
of copyright-like rights over anything they transmit,
including public domain and Creative Commons-licensed works.
It would also give broadcasters legal protection to use
technology to lock down content, giving them control over
how you use broadcasts received by your television, radio
and possibly personal computer as well as control over how
those devices are designed and built.
The new treaty is likely to restrict your access to
knowledge and culture, and it lets broadcasters make
decisions that should be left in the hands of creators and
the public. Furthermore, the treaty raises serious threats
to innovation in Internet and home entertainment
technologies.
EFF and other groups have worked hard in Geneva, trying to
fix the proposed broadcasting treaty, but with the United
States providing so much of the force behind its adoption,
it has been uphill work.
We believe it would be a terrible mistake for WIPO to create
new rights for broadcasters, who are merely middlemen, which
could restrict what ordinary Americans do with their media.
We don't think the U.S. delegation members have taken the
time to hear the views of the American public. The
delegation should hold a public consultation with the
American people before it continues to lobby for expansive
new IP rights.
The two committees in Congress that have responsibility for
copyright and telecommunications policy are the House and
Senate Judiciary Committees. Your representatives are in
these committees -- write now to ask them to request that
the U.S. WIPO delegation seek the public's comments.
Take action:
<http://action.eff.org/site/Advocacy?id=227>
For more on the treaty:
<http://www.eff.org/IP/WIPO/broadcasting_treaty/>
