IP-Watch reports on WIPO Broadcasting Treaty

Check out this new site if you want to track global intellectual property debates from Geneva. Things should be hotting up at WIPO over the next few months – especially over the proposed ‘Broadcasting Treaty‘ which would give broadcasters, cable casters, and, under the U.S. proposal, web casters a range of new rights, and at the same time, substantially expand both the scope and duration of currently recognised rights for broadcasting organisations. The EFF is calling the proposals a “grave threat” to competition, technological innovation, scientific research and freedom of expression. They say that the proposals could enable broadcasters to restrict the distribution of material that is not copyrightable, is in the public domain or is made freely availably by its creator.