Friday, June 22, 2007

Broadcast Rights? WTF?

I just read this on BoingBoing. You'll have to scroll down a bit. Anyways, they link to this article. Go read both.

From Cory Doctorow's BoingBoing post.

"This week, the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization is holding a critical debate on the "Broadcast Treaty." This treaty would establish a new copyright-like right, but whereas copyright goes to people who make creative works, Broadcast Rights go to companies that broadcast other people's copyrighted works. The Broadcast Right isn't subject to the same fair use limits as copyright, which means that even if copyright lets you record a broadcast for criticism or parody, you will need to separately get an exemption under the Broadcast Right. More gravely, if means that if you license your work under Creative Commons, the people who distribute the files or air the program can overrule your generosity and insist that your fans not copy your work."

Broadcast Rights? Are they serious? The fact that they are scares the crap out of me. We live in dangerous times...

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