Hearings on Broadcast Treaty: Corps. Could Trump Creators

[snot]

From http://www.boingboing.net/2007/04/14/public_hearing_on_br.html :

"The US Patent and Trademark Office is holding public hearings on May 9 to discuss the US position on the WIPO Broadcast Treaty -- you can attend and even speak.

"The Broadcast Treaty is a proposal to let broadcasters (and "webcasters" -- people who host files and make them available to the Internet) claim a copyright to the stuff that they transmit. Broadcasters get this special right even if the stuff they're sending around is in the public domain, or Creative Commons licensed, or not copyrightable (like CSPAN's broadcasts of Congress). Fair use doesn't apply to this right.

"What this means is that a handful of corporations are going to be able to claim copyrights over billions of works they didn't create -- works that they've done nothing to improve, works they've done nothing for except electromagnetically modulating them.

"What this means is that these corporations are going to be able to trump the rights of actual creators. If you put a Creative Commons license on your video that allows your fans to share it, the "broadcaster" -- or the person who transmits it over the Web -- can override your wishes and tell your fans that they can't."

(snip; more at link.)

[ThomCat]

1. I am not surprised. I figured something like this would come

out sometime reasonably soon. If corporations can't own the content they'll claim that once you let them broadcast the content then they own the right to control all broadcasts of that content. In essence, in order to get any play you'll have to sign over the rights to your stuff.
x(

One way or another the corporations get to stack the rules in their favor.