Einführung in den WIPO-Broadcast-Völkervertrag

Vor zwei Wochen erschien bei Ars Technica der empfehlenswerte Artikel „Understanding the WIPO Broadcast Treaty“. Der Titel sagt schon einiges über den Inhalt aus.

Your rights are in danger. That’s the message that activist groups have been spreading as the World Intellectual Property Organization moves tortoise-like towards the completion of a new broadcasting treaty that could curtail the ways that consumers use media and could create a broad new intellectual property right over electromagnetic transmissions that could last for 50 years.

That’s a scary story, but it’s not the complete one. WIPO has been working on this treaty for almost a decade, but thanks to pressure from certain countries and from the activist groups who have worked tirelessly to alter a treaty that the public cared little about, significant new changes were made in the last few weeks that will affect the ultimate shape of the treaty.

This is the story of where that treaty came from, what it says, how it has been altered, and where it’s going next. While it sounds esoteric, the treaty could have immediate real-world effects on everything from recording TV sitcoms to producing the Daily Show to limiting the public domain. So strap yourselves in, and let’s take a tour of WIPO.