The Access to Knowledge Coalition expresses deep concern regarding the draft broadcast treaty under discussion at WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights.
The Broadcast Treaty in its current form is a treaty without a purpose. The original purpose of the treaty was to protect traditional broadcasters against theft of their signals. By extending the treaty to webcasters, and far beyond broadcast signals, the current text creates terminological and technical confusion with significant overlap with copyright.
The Broadcast Treaty creates a never-ending exclusivity. The current draft grants new exclusive rights which can even extend to materials in the public domain or openly licensed.
The Broadcast Treaty does not protect the public interest. The draft does not include mandatory exceptions for quotation, news of the day, education, research, libraries, archives, museums and persons with disabilities.
The Broadcast Treaty is not aligned with Human Rights. The draft does not advance the achievement of the WIPO Development Agenda and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The Broadcast Treaty should not be adopted in its current form.
Broadcasts are used for various public interest purposes:
Educators use broadcast materials for class preparation, teaching, and student work to ensure the right to quality education.
Libraries, archives and museums preserve broadcast content to provide access to our cultural heritage.
Researchers use broadcasts to facilitate media monitoring and to study history and culture.
Broadcasts are also a critical source of content for other creators, such as journalists and documentary filmmakers.
The Broadcast Treaty must take these users and their interests into account.
