Broadcasting Organizations
The updating of the international protection of broadcasting organizations has been discussed at length at the WIPO in the ambit of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR). The issue at stake is to update the protection of broadcasting organizations, which are holders of related rights, in response to the digital and other new technologies and the growing use of the Internet.
Important developments in technology and marketplace have taken place in the broadcasting sector since the adoption of the Rome Convention in 1961. The process was initiated at the WIPO Worldwide Symposium on Broadcasters’ Rights which was held in Manila in 1997.
At the 2006 WIPO General Assembly, member states decided that two special sessions of the SCCR would be convened to clarify the outstanding issues. Those sessions aimed at agreeing and finalizing on a signal-based approach, the objectives, specific scope and object of protection with a view to submitting to a diplomatic conference a revised basic proposal. The two special sessions took place in Geneva from January 17 to 19 and from June 18 to 22, 2007. The second special session showed a lack of consensus on some key issues.
Following the decision of the 34th session of the WIPO General Assembly, the issue of protection of the rights of broadcasting organizations is retained on the agenda of the SCCR for its regular sessions.
Selected documents
- Working Document for a Treaty on the protection of Broadcasting Organizations
- Report on the informal consultations on the protection of broadcasting organizations
- Analytical document on the study on the socioeconomic dimension of the unauthorized use of signals, Part I, II and III
- WIPO Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations (informal paper prepared by the Chairman of the SCCR)
