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Several representatives of the IT, telecommunications, consumer electronics industry, public interest organizations and performers joined in a common statement issued on 5 September to oppose the WIPO Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasts and Broadcasting Organizations.

The treaty creates a new class of IP rights meant to protect broadcasters from the theft of their TV signals which is considered by the signatories of the statement as "misguided and unnecessary". On their opinion, the issue could have been solved by a "signal protection-oriented approach, ideally focusing narrowly and specifically on protecting signals from intentional misappropriation or theft."

The opponents to the treaty claim that its text may give broadcasters wide-ranging rights over Internet content and believe the treaty should include certain limitations and exceptions to make sure the treaty does not inhibit the use of the content that is legal under the copyright law.

Concern is shown regarding the unprecedented control that broadcasters might gain over signals in home or personal network environments and the signatories propose the treaty includes "a provision excluding coverage of fixations, transmissions or retransmissions across a home or personal network".

Another issue raised is that of the intermediary liability, the present draft of the treaty creating the risk for the network intermediaries to face liability for the infringement of the broadcasting rights.

The draft also excludes computer networks from the protection for simulcasts although this is provided for the traditional broadcasters and cablecasters.

The latest version of the draft treaty is being discussed in Geneva on 11-13 September 2006 at the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and related rights.

Statement concerning the WIPO Broadcast treaty provided by certain information technology, consumer electronics telecommunications industry representatives, public interest organizations, and performers' representatives (5.09.2006)
http://www.publicknowledge.org/pdf/wipo-statement-20060905.pdf

Tech companies oppose WIPO treaty on TV rights (8.09.2006)
http://www.theregister.com/2006/09/08/wipo_treaty_opposition/

Revised Draft Basic Proposal for the WIPO Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations (31.05.2006)
http://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/sccr/en/sccr_15/sccr_15_2.pdf

EDRI-gram :Webcasting put on a separate track from the new draft WIPO Treaty (10.05.2006)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.9/sccr