[WSIS CS-Plenary] ACTION ITEM: Sign the Request for public consultations on WIPO Webcasting treaty

[Ralf Bendrath]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [alt.wsis] ACTION ITEM: Sign the Request for public consultations 
on WIPO Webcasting treaty
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2005 20:31:00 -0700
From: Sasha Costanza-Chock <schock at riseup.net>

*please circulate widely!*

This is a sign-on letter asking the leadership of the US House and
Senate to block US support for a diplomatic conference at WIPO to create
a new global intellectual property right for broadcasting and webcasting
organizations, at least until the public can comment on the proposal.

We are hoping to close out the letter by October 11. At present the
United States trade negotiators are putting enormous pressure on WIPO to
schedule the diplomatic conference by the 2nd quarter of 2006, and to
include a highly controversial new IP right for "webcasting," which is
defined extremely broadly. The proposal would give broadcasters and web
page operators a property right in information now in the public domain,
or which would otherwise be freely available from copyright owners. It
creates a new thicket of rights that the public would have to deal with
before they could share or reuse works.

To sign, please visit http://www.access2knowledge.org/cs/wipo.statement.iim3