US Senate: Broadcast Treaty subverts copyright!

The Broadcast Treaty -- a proposed UN treaty that would eliminate the guarantees of Creative Commons freedoms and fair use -- has been dealt a potentially fatal blow. The US Senate has taken notice of the fact that this treaty subverts the purpose of American copyright (promoting creativity by giving rights to creators) and merely gives a gift to the broadcasters and webcasters of the world. These middle-men don't do any creative labor: their creativity is limited to electromagnetically modulating someone else's work. Yet they have used the Broadcast Treaty to claim a 20-50 year monopoly over the uses of the works they transmit, even where their will clashes with that of actual copyright holders.

The US is one of the staunchest proponents of this treaty, and the Senate has directed the US's delegate to WIPO to cut it out -- stop subverting American law to appease the broadcasters.

The Revised Draft Broadcasting Treaty appears to grant broadcasters extensive new, exclusive rights in their transmissions for a term of at least 20 years, regardless of whether they have a right in the content they are transmitting. While we support the need to protect against signal theft of broadcast transmissions, the treaty appears to go beyond this purpose and grant broadcasters a right in their transmissions similar to a content holder's copyright. As a result, the rights that would be granted to broadcasters by the Revised Draft Broadcasting Treaty could limit legitimate, fair use of the content and would add an unnecessary layer of uncertainty in consumer use.

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See also America to US gov't: kill the Broadcast Treaty!