Deeplinks Blog posts about WIPO
The White House has submitted two copyright treaties to the Senate for ratification: the Marrakesh Treaty, which would improve access to copyrighted works for people with visual and print disabilities; and the Beijing Treaty, which could create a new layer of monopoly rights for the creators of audiovisual works. International copyright treaties move slowly, so neither of these is a surprise. For years now, we've encouraged the adoption of Marrakesh and the rejection of Beijing.
It has been obvious for decades that copyright law is ill-matched for the opportunities and challenges created by the Internet. It's been equally obvious, however, that sensible copyright policies face huge practical barriers, in large part because few are willing to challenge the default assumption of copyright law that every time a copy is made the rightsholder's permission is required. That assumption makes no sense in the digital age, but it's hugely difficult to dislodge, especially at the international stage.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) threatens all users' ability to access information and participate in culture and innovation online, but it's especially severe for those with disabilities or who otherwise depend on content in accessible formats. That's because it doubles down on broken policies that were heavily lobbied for by Hollywood and other major publishers that impede the distribution of accessible works.
The TPP would force countries to enact harsher restrictions, and in other cases, undermine future efforts to reform laws that are already actively robbing people's autonomy and control over their own devices, purchased content, and online activities. If you've been following this issue, you'd know that this is due to secrecy of negotiations and the overwhelming influence that the copyright industries wield over trade officials.
In Jewish religious law, there is an offence called lifnei iver (literally, “before the blind”), that prohibits placing stumbling blocks before blind people, deriving from a verse of scripture also accepted by Christians and Muslims. This offense seems so obvious that it hardly requires a scripture verse to call it out. But the authors of the Torah obviously didn't count on the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), who are doing exactly that.
Video is an enormous part of the Internet today. At least two thirds of all Internet traffic is streaming video. YouTube is the third most-visited website in the US and the world, and its users add a mind-boggling 300 hours of new content every minute—dwarfing the video produced for broadcast or cable television. And unlike television, online video came into being without government oversight, all due to one important neutral platform for innovation—the Internet.
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