Members of the Access to Knowledge Coalition released an analysis of the major agenda items of the 44th session of WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights that will take place in Geneva from 6-8 November 2023 (SCCR/44). The analysis opposes the draft Broadcasting Treaty, proposes a way forward for the limitations and exceptions and Digital White Paper agenda items, and urges that members remove the agenda item on “lending rights” that charge libraries for the uses of their members.
The A2K Coalition opposes the proposed Broadcasting Treaty (SCCR/43/3). At the 44th SCCR, the Committee will consider a Third Chair’s Draft which is substantially similar to the Second Draft considered in SCCR 43. According to the Coalition, the Draft continues to promote an exclusive rights model that would threaten to add a new layer of required permissions that could threaten education, research and other public interest uses. The Coalition calls for any new treaty to balance new rights with appropriate limitations and exceptions, including mandatory exceptions for all uses required to be permitted by copyright. The most recent text includes a right of fixation in Article 7, which was added in the Second Draft and retained in the Third. The Coalition criticizes the draft as lacking an adequate understanding of the relationship between a fixation right and post-fixation rights. Indeed, the explanatory note states “Contracting Parties may consider introducing a post-fixation right concerning transmissions following fixation or making available to the public.” According to the Coalition, it is paramount that nothing in the treaty creates a layer of post-fixation rights.
In regard to the limitations and exceptions agenda items, the Coalition calls on the SCCR to create working groups charged with drafting objectives, principles and options concerning the three identified priority issues – preservation; online and digital education and research; access for people with disabilities other than visual impairments.
The Access to Knowledge Coalition supports the agenda item for a Proposal for Analysis of Copyright Related to the Digital Environment presented by GRULAC (SCCR/43/7). It encourages the Committee to adopt a work plan for this issue similar to the Committee’s work plan for the L&E agenda that provides a process to move the agenda forward.
Regarding the Proposal for a Study Focused on the Public Lending Right in the Agenda and Future Work of SCCR, The Coalition opposes further consideration of public lending rights and proposes that this item be removed. Public lending rights require libraries to pay rights holders for the lending activities of their patrons and exist in only a small number of countries.
The Coalition recommends that SCCR devotes more time to understanding the new and emerging issues regarding generative AI – particularly as the current WIPO discussions on this matter are taking place in a forum that is not overseen by Member States.
The A2K Coalition is composed of organizations representing educators, researchers, students, libraries, archives, museums, other knowledge users and creative communities around the globe. The members share a vision of a fair and balanced copyright system that is underpinned by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The full comment of the Coalition is included here.
