News Roundup

Barcelona Seminar Discusses Broadcasters' Rights

International experts, business leaders, academics and government delegates gathered on June 21, 2006, in Barcelona, under the auspices of WIPO, the Catalan Broadcasting Council and the Barcelona Bar Association, to examine current technical, economic and legal realities in the field of broadcasting, and to identify areas for development.

The seminar provided an opportunity for all interested participants to share their views on the possible impact of updating the rights of broadcasting organizations, which were established in the 1961 Rome Convention on the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations. The debate was structured in three parts: an analysis of the evolution of business models and technologies involved in broadcasting; an assessment of the position of broadcasters, both as users of IP in the content they transmit (films, music, literary works, etc) and as owners of their specific broadcaster rights; and finally a round table on the proposed WIPO Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations, currently under discussion in Geneva. The round table brought together government delegates from Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Portugal and an EU Commission representative, in a discussion moderated by the Chair of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, Mr Jukka Liedes, to look at the range of views expressed by Iberoamerican Governments and the European Union.

The event was webcast courtesy of ALFA- REDI, a Latin American NGO devoted to legal analysis of the Internet and the new technologies. Over 200 connections to the webcast were logged with an average duration of over 40 minutes, mostly from Latin America and the US.

The meeting benefited from the active support of broadcasting organizations and content owners, including the Association of Commercial Television in Europe (ACT), Association of European Radios (AER), Association of Spanish Commercial Radio (AERC), International Association of Broadcasting (AIR), European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the Audiovisual Producers Rights Management Organization (EGEDA).

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