GENEVA - In a move that signals entry into the final phase of treaty negotiations, the General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) agreed to convene a diplomatic conference from November 19 to December 7, 2007 to update the rights of broadcasting organizations, a press release by WIPO stated.
The objective of this diplomatic conference is to conclude a treaty on the protection of broadcasting organizations, including cablecasting organizations.
The General Assembly's decision lays out a roadmap for the last leg of negotiations. Two special sessions of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), the forum where formal negotiations have taken place, will be held "to clarify the outstanding issues." The decision says that "the sessions of the SCCR should aim to agree and finalize, on a signal-based approach, the objectives, specific scope and object of protection." The SCCR sessions will be held in January and June 2007.
The General Assembly's decision was taken on the basis of a recommendation made by the SCCR last month. The General Assembly also decided to convene a preparatory committee to prepare the necessary modalities of the diplomatic conference - draft rules of procedure to be presented for adoption to the diplomatic conference, the lists of states, as well as intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to be invited to participate in the conference as well as other organizational matters - in conjunction with the second meeting of the SCCR in June 2007.
The discussions are confined to the protection of traditional broadcasting organizations and cablecasting. This followed a decision by the 14th session of the SCCR from May 1-5, 2006, to examine questions of webcasting and simulcasting on a separate track following the current meeting of the WIPO Assemblies (Sept. 25 - Oct. 3, 2006).
Updating the IP rights of broadcasters, currently provided by the 1961 Rome Convention on the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations, began at WIPO in 1997. A growing signal piracy problem in many parts of the world, including piracy of digitized pre-broadcast signals, has made this need more acute.