The Human Resources Ministry (which manages India’s WIPO participation) held a “Stakeholders’ Meeting” on March 21, 2013 to consult on India’s position for the upcoming meetings. CASBAA’s India representative and a few members of India’s broadcasting industry attended. They strongly advocated for India to abandon its insistence on excluding the internet from the treaty.
Here are a few of the points they made:
Given the rapid development and increasing maturity of India’s broadcasting industry, it is becoming a serious competitor in global entertainment markets. But to make this happen, its intellectual property must be protected.
The government needs to take cognizance of this, and work actively to advance India’s real interests, by pressing forward on a treaty to provide global protection to broadcasting organizations.
It is ridiculous to contemplate a treaty that does not include internet broadcasting. The internet is an essential tool for broadcasters in today’s world, and it is also the source of the lion’s share of copyright infringement. Developing-country broadcasters are trying to use the internet to reach out to consumers around the world. And of course this includes Indian broadcasters. Here in Asia, developing-country broadcasters distributing their channels by means of the internet come from China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, to name a few.
Download note on India’s HRD Ministry Meeting on Protection of Broadcasting Organizations’ Rights At WIPO, March 21, 2013, New Delhi here