Re: People in Power

Martijn Magermans <mt.magermans[_at_]student.unimaas.nl> wrote:
>
> I think the introduction of my last question was a little bit too
> long so I will pose it again in a shorter version:
>
> 1. Can anybody give me some insight in who the parties are that are
> in a position to influance Copyright law (I can think of publishers
> and lybraries);

I think at the top of my list would be publishers, rights clearance organizations, libraries, universities and other educational organizations, governments, service providers, individual authors societies and a few others. For instance in the recent WIPO negotiations or on the NII copyright bills in the U.S. several of these groups put forth some significant arm bending pressure. Publishing houses and rights management organizations like BMI and ASCAP were significant players in getting the NII white paper drafted in its present form and testified thoroughly to congress. Several libraries got in on the act with regard to use rights. The main contrary force seems to have come from the service providers and telecomms as they didn't particularly care to be liable for someone else accessing and infringing copyright over their systems.

> 2. Can anybody give me some insight in to what these parties are
> trying to achieve (except holding on to their rights);

It depends on how you want to characterize the debate. Some people view the publishers and rights clearance organizations as trying to just hold on to the reproduction and distribution right in the face of increasing technology. The contrary view is that they are trying to establish a new right of transmission which would potentially allow control of every use of a work rather than the first sale. The libraries and educational institutions are trying desperately to just hold on to their ability to function without having to pay huge fees to the copyright owner. Finally the telecomms and access providers are trying to carve out a protection for themselves so they are not liable for the acts of others.

> 3. Can anybody tell me what the role was during the WIPO proposals of
> the telecommunication sector;

I don't know about the Telecomm sector outside the U.S. but there was a group of telecomms and internet access providers who grouped together to form the ad hoc copyright coalition which has been fighting tooth and nail here and at WIPO to prevent a transmission right from creeping into the law. I am not sure how much of an effect it had at the WIPO level. My understanding was that they were talking to everyone they could find but that as non-governmental organizations they were working from the periphery and at least as far as the U.S. delegation I don't think they ever stood a chance of swaying them.

Sean Calvert
3L Santa Clara University
scalvert[_at_]hooked.net
scalvert[_at_]scuacc.scu.edu Received on Tue Apr 01 1997 - 02:49:06 GMT