Campaigners, including librarians, who were alarmed by the scope of proposals being considered by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo), are claiming victory following some crucial amendments.
The proposed treaty, which contained what had been dubbed 'the least balanced and most potentially anti-competitive intellectual property rights ever created', was discussed at a Diplomatic Conference in Geneva.
Some of the more apocalyptic predictions before the conference (January Record, p. 9) had suggested that, should the proposals be adopted in full, it would mean the end of the World Wide Web as an open network and the outlawing of domestic video recorders.
Sandy Norman, the LA's Professional Adviser (Legal & Parliamentary), who attended the conference as part of the Ifla team, acclaimed the result as 'a fairly good compromise between the rights of the copyright holders and the interests of the free flow of information'.
'As a non-governmental organisation, Ifla had observer status and was not allowed to make any oral interventions. We had to make our points by supplying written statements, which were then backed up by lobbying individually in the breaks from the main discussions.'
Perhaps the most important of the proposals, from a librarian's point of view, were the limitations and exceptions.
'We were fighting against the view that fair use and library privileges should not continue in the digital environment,' says Sandy.
The hard work of lobbying paid off in this respect. Delegates from a number of governments were persuaded to put forward Ifla's viewpoints, and the restrictions to fair use were overturned. The treaties now confirm that limitations and exceptions currently permitted can continue into the future.
Librarians were also concerned about the extension of copyright control to what were termed 'temporary copies'. This included 'copies' made in a computer's Ram and threatened a nightmare scenario of bureaucracy whereby permission might have to be sought separately for every stage in a document's electronic journey across the Internet. But this provision has now been deleted on the basis that it was 'both illogical and potentially detrimental to development of new technologies and socially valuable uses'.
Also of concern was a clause which proposed making every party to a communication potentially liable for copyright infringement. This would have made libraries providing Internet services potentially liable should their machines be used for any transaction which involved copyright infringement, such as downloading an image or text from a site which had not obtained proper permission.
This was clarified in the further draft, with the conference unanimously declaring that a communication does not include the mere provision of facilities to enable the communication.
Another sweeping proposal was the outlawing of devices that had the 'primary purpose or effect' of circumventing any technology used to protect copyrighted works. While this was intended to rule against devices used for piracy, it was argued that it could be used against technology such as audio and video recorders. This aspect of the treaty has now been clarified to refer specifically to circumvention for unlawful purposes.
Proposals to give new rights of protection to owners of databases were deferred with a recommendation that a schedule should be established for work in this area in the first quarter of this year.
Inevitably not everyone is happy with the result. Charles Clark, general counsel for the International Publishers' Copyright Council, which was amongst the groups seen to be pushing for tighter controls, is quoted in the Times Higher Education Supplement (17 January) as saying 'I do not think there is much comfort for any of us out of this treaty. Quite frankly, it is very messy.'
Clive Bradley of the Publishers Association is, according to the Bookseller, of the opinion that the revisions will cost authors and publishers millions of pounds a year in lost royalties and sales.
But from a librarian's point of view it is a good starting point.
'We can progress from here to ensure that librarians can use data in the digital age with the same ease as printed information,' says Sandy Norman.
The legislation will now be presented to the 30 national governments for ratification. No changes are likely to national legislation as a result of this. The next major step is the EU's action agenda on a number of copyright issues (January Record, p.9) which will deal with harmonising policy towards exceptions throughout the member states.
The official text of the Wipo treaties can be accessed on the official Web site , while the Home Recording Rights Commission presents a guide to the key amendments on its site.
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Last updated: 23 Jan 97
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