WIPO's biennial General
Assembly meeting starts next week
in Geneva, and things are starting to heat up in advance of the meeting.
We'll be there, in case you were wondering, to participate as an accredited observer organization, and to report on developments.
Several contentious items are on the agenda, and mischief is already being planned, from what we've heard.
There are two major issues and one less-major issue brewing.
The first is the Broadcast Treaty, which we've blogged before. Last week the activists sent a letter to selected Congressmen and Senators asking that they pressure U.S. negotiators to stop pressing for the Broadcast Treaty, and especially against the inclusion of webcasting in the treaty.
Next week WIPO will attempt to move the Broadcast Treaty to the "diplomatic conference" stage, which is a risky and expensive undertaking. It's the next stage before an actual treaty that can be signed by member states, so if it fails it's a failure (duh).
The second is the Development Agenda; or rather, where do we go with the proposed Development Agenda? Don't ask me--I have no idea. I expect there will be an attempt to implement the Agenda despite a lack of consensus. Failing that, they'll probably try to extend the Development Agenda discussion, which would give me lots more opportunities to travel to Geneva, but which would be a completely unproductive undertaking for WIPO.
And the other thing I referred to is mischief regarding the WIPO budget. The budget review and approval is early in the agenda of the 10-day meeting, but if you want to make trouble, one thing you can do is try to move the budget discussion to the end of the agenda, so that it comes up late in the meeting, which means you can try to hold the budget hostage and use it for leverage to get something else that you want, or hold the budget hostage just to vent your frustration with the developed world.
Not that it's likely to happen or anything . . .
The Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI), the sponsor of this blog, will be releasing a couple of IP policy papers during the meeting.
We'll be there, in case you were wondering, to participate as an accredited observer organization, and to report on developments.
Several contentious items are on the agenda, and mischief is already being planned, from what we've heard.
There are two major issues and one less-major issue brewing.
The first is the Broadcast Treaty, which we've blogged before. Last week the activists sent a letter to selected Congressmen and Senators asking that they pressure U.S. negotiators to stop pressing for the Broadcast Treaty, and especially against the inclusion of webcasting in the treaty.
Next week WIPO will attempt to move the Broadcast Treaty to the "diplomatic conference" stage, which is a risky and expensive undertaking. It's the next stage before an actual treaty that can be signed by member states, so if it fails it's a failure (duh).
The second is the Development Agenda; or rather, where do we go with the proposed Development Agenda? Don't ask me--I have no idea. I expect there will be an attempt to implement the Agenda despite a lack of consensus. Failing that, they'll probably try to extend the Development Agenda discussion, which would give me lots more opportunities to travel to Geneva, but which would be a completely unproductive undertaking for WIPO.
And the other thing I referred to is mischief regarding the WIPO budget. The budget review and approval is early in the agenda of the 10-day meeting, but if you want to make trouble, one thing you can do is try to move the budget discussion to the end of the agenda, so that it comes up late in the meeting, which means you can try to hold the budget hostage and use it for leverage to get something else that you want, or hold the budget hostage just to vent your frustration with the developed world.
Not that it's likely to happen or anything . . .
The Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI), the sponsor of this blog, will be releasing a couple of IP policy papers during the meeting.