With WIPO Broadcast Treaty Delayed, Some Criticize Opaque Informal Talks

Controversy flared this week during talks on a treaty to update broadcasting protections for the digital age. Formal negotiations by the World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) remain stalled due to COVID-19, but some member countries and observers were “quite shocked” to discover that an informal “friends of the chair” group had met twice this year to work on treaty language, emailed Knowledge Ecology Online Geneva Representative Thiru Balasubramaniam. The group, which had lain dormant during the COVID-19 pandemic, met before the Monday-Thursday partly virtual meeting. In his meeting summary, acting Chair Abdoul Aziz Dieng said he would consider concerns raised about the informal talks