Broadcast Flag Treaty-WIPO again

[Liblicense-L Listowner <liblicen@pantheon.yale.edu>]

Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2004 23:37:23 EDT
From: cah@carolina.rr.com
Subject: Broadcast Flag Treaty-WIPO again

If CBS broadcasts the president's state of the Union, even though there's
no copyright involved, a new WIPO proposed TREATY will make it illegal to
capture or "fix" the broadcast by anyone but the (non-copyright holding)
broadcaster. bye bye TIVO and VCRs? The US wants for some reason, webcasts
included.  Sort of the DMCA for broadcasters (makes it illegal etc. to
remove a "broadcast flag" that prohibits "fixing" the broadcast by the
rest of the world-except the broadcaster non-copyright owner. Period of
time is 50 years counted from the year an item is broadcast At least ,
thats what it looks like to me and some others who have commented on it.
Take a look at Ernest Miller's post on CORANTE:

http://www.corante.com/importance/archives/002925.html

WIPO TREATY for the PROTECTION OF BROADCAST ORGANIZATIONS. Article 8-right
of fixation "Broadcasting organizations shall enjoy the exclusive right of
authorizing the fixation of their broadcasts"

I guess that means that even if you taped the first Johnny Carson
broadcasts and the network destroyed them, YOU would be illegal....what a
strange strange way to ensure the destruction of any record of our shared
cultural experiences., our cultural memory.OH, yes, it would be illegal to
circumvent a broadcast flag...even if its--well just repeat after me
DMCA!! And if you own it, as we know, you can change it...Orwell well
where are you??

Does anyone know if archival taping/recording, is permitted? probaby not,
since off air taping is generally ONLY for time shifting..but that could
easily be prohibited by the new non-copyright owner. I wonder how many new
rights are waiting in the wings to protect other "organizations" while
sounding the death knell to individual's rights to keep a record of their
world-and maybe just maybe pass it on to future generations. One of the
few areas I know something about off-air taping is in radio broadcasts
from the early days of commercial radio. If amateurs hadn't taped them,
many wouldn't be around today. We know what happened to Johnny Carson's
early TV broadcasts. ..

Chuck Hamaker