Webcasting Gets a Reprieve
International treaty provisions that would prevent the retransmission of media over the Web have been dropped -- for now.
By
If proposed rules preventing the digital retransmission of TV, radio, or cable broadcasts are adopted as part of an international treaty on broadcasting, it could have repercussions throughout the nascent world of Web broadcasting. For instance, it might become illegal for musicians to offer recordings of their performances on their own websites, or for bloggers to post video and audio files -- even if the content is in the public domain.
But last week countries opposed to these provisions -- which would have given broadcasters and cable TV companies broad new rights to control information on the Internet -- managed to strip them from the treaty, at least temporarily.
During a five-day meeting in Geneva of the U.N. World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, an unlikely coalition of delegates from developing nations and technology organizations such as Intel and the U.S. Telecom Association voiced strong objections to treaty provisions covering webcasting and "simulcasting" over broadcast or cable networks and computer networks. By the end of the meeting, on May 5, the committee, which had intended to finish a draft treaty that could be agreed upon by the WIPO General Assembly in 2007, decided to send the assembly only the less controversial sections of the treaty. Debate over the Internet provisions was deferred until this fall.
"The good news is that webcasting is out of the treaty," says Robin Gross, executive director of IP Justice, a civil liberties organization based in San Francisco, which sent a representative to the meeting. "But it's a little too soon to celebrate," he adds, since one article still in the main draft of the treaty gives broadcasters the exclusive right to authorize retransmission of their broadcasts by any means, including over computer networks.
More on http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=16783&ch=biztech
--
best regards,
Deirdré Straughan
www.beginningwithi.com (personal)
www.tvblob.com (work)
| Fireant | Individual | Use |
| Explains |
YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
- Visit your group "videoblogging" on the web.
- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
