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The General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) has decided that the very controversial proposed treaty on the protection of broadcasting organizations, including cablecasting organizations, must be approved by two more meetings before being put for discussion in a diplomatic conference established to take place from 19 November to 7 December 2007.

The General Assembly considered these two meetings as necessary to achieve enough consensus among member states, as India, US and Brazil had objected to introducing the treaty immediately to a conference.

Addressing the General Assembly, Robin Gross, executive director of IP Justice, said: "A diplomatic conference is now contingent upon member states reaching consensus where there are currently great differences such as the inclusion of anti-circumvention measures in the treaty and outlawing Internet retransmissions of programs."

Discussions will continue in the January 2007 meeting at WIPO and in June 2007 at a meeting held along with a preparatory meeting for the Diplomatic Conference.

The proposed treaty creates a new right for broadcasters on the content of broadcasts, even if the creator of the content is a third party. However this might lead to the situation when the creators no longer have permanent control over the content for which they have copyright.

The 2007 conference will define the scope of a future treaty, as well as the duration of any protection granted.

This decision of the General Assembly is encouraging, showing that WIPO is not a simple tool in the hands of the industries.

Broadcast treaty needs sounding out, says WIPO (4.10.06)
http://www.out-law.com/page-7357

General Assembly approves convening of diplomatic conference on the protection of broadcasting organizations (2.10.06)
http://www.wipo.int/edocs/prdocs/en/2006/wipo_pr_2006_460.html

U.N. convenes broadcasting treaty talks in 2007 (2.10.06)
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=industryNews&s...

WIPO broadcast treaty abandons rights-based approach (3.10.06)
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061003-7891.html

WIPO General Assembly Puts Brakes on Broadcast Treaty, Overrules Chairman (2.10.06)
http://ipjustice.org/wp/2006/10/02/wipo-general-assembly-decision-on-b...

EDRI-gram : Opposition to draft WIPO Broadcast Treaty (13.09.06)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.17/wipobroadcast