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Human Resources Ministry Stakeholders Meeting Notes

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

No need for duplicate regulation of media ownership, CASBAA tells TRAI

TRAI Consultation — Indian Media Ownership

CASBAA made a detailed submission to India’s TRAI on proposed restraints on media ownership. CASBAA, backed by an authoritative report on international precedents from London consulting firm FTI Consultants, told TRAI that such rules were high-risk, and poor decisions now would warp the structure and development of India’s media industry for decades to come. Therefore, the potential risks and benefits of policy choices had to be carefully assessed – which had yet to be done in India. The consultants at FTI warned that in the absence of adequate analysis of potential policy impacts “there is a significant risk that India could embark on a regulation that is not fit for purpose and based on outdated market research. Far from correcting a market failure that has not been demonstrated, the result could be significant damage to markets.”

Other main points of the CASBAA submission:
The TRAI consultation paper was a solution in search of a problem – it jumped immediately into asking about details of solutions, without setting forth the nature of the issue which needed resolution. It never considered a range of possible approaches including “no change.” As such, CASBAA commented “we do not find the approach in this paper to represent an acceptable base for proceeding with a major regulatory intervention.”

The Consultation Paper was completely backward-looking; it took no account of the massive growth in online consumption of news and other media even in the four years since TRAI had last taken up this issue. Convergence is the future of the media industry, and regulations considered now must address convergence.

The TRAI proposals made no mention of the comprehensive competition policy rules administered by the Competition Council of India. “Indian law gives the CCI ample authority over this sector (and all others) and no case has been made that the media sector requires additional or different regulation,” said CASBAA.

The result of international considerations of media plurality issues, including an exhaustive consultation process by Ofcom in the UK, has tended to the conclusion that media plurality assessments must be based on a full view incorporating many measures. “Mechanistic” bars to ownership would risk stifling investment at a time when the media sector is vibrant and changing.

Discussion in the TRAI paper of a number of the international precedents was skewed. For example, the US FCC, having relied on “diversity indexes” to try to calculate plurality, moved away from these in 2006 stating it had concluded such an index “is an inaccurate tool for measuring diversity”. FTI Consultants observed that “the international media regulatory landscape as it affects ownership and plurality is far more diverse and complex than the selected examples presented by TRAI.”

India already has policies in place (e.g. “must provide”) to prevent vertical restraints that affect competition and India needs the efficiencies and economic benefits to consumers than can flow from vertical investments. TRAI has not presented a case justifying additional general restraints against vertical integration.

See the CASBAA complete submission here

See the Report by FTI Consulting here

Broadcasters’ Retransmission Rights Affirmed by EU Court

In a landmark verdict delivered in early March, the European Court of Justice issued a very strong decision in support of the rights of broadcasters to control simultaneous relay (on the internet or otherwise) of their signals.   CASBAA member ITV was one of the plaintiffs, and law firm Olswang acted for them.  Under the ECJ decision, many third-party internet relay services and “catchup” TV services will be considered to violate broadcasters’ copyrights — even where (i) the subscribers to the service could otherwise lawfully have received the broadcast on their television receivers; and (ii) the service may or may not be profit-making or competing with the original broadcaster.   See an article and read the decision here.

Content and ISP Industries Unite: HK Copyright Legislation Must Go Ahead

A coalition of Hong Kong copyright associations (including CASBAA) and internet service providers is urging the SAR government to move expeditiously to enact copyright amendments that were six years in the making, but which stalled in the Legislative Council before it adjourned for elections last summer. At that time the legislation was criticized because of allegations it would restrain political parodies based on photos and other copyrighted works. The coalition noted that the legislation represents “a balance of considerations for all stakeholders, including many safeguards for real ‘parody’,” and urged the government to swiftly amend the 2011 bill, clarify the proposed criminal liability relating to “parody,” and submit the Bill to the Legislative Council “at the earliest possible opportunity.”

Download the full statement of the coalition here.

For its part, CASBAA joined the coalition in supporting rapid passage of the existing legislation, believing that broad-based unity of stakeholders in legitimate content is important, and noting that Hong Kong’s policy development process has dragged on for far too long. But the bill itself is no panacea. CASBAA’s Chief Policy Officer John Medeiros described it as “thin gruel” that will “do little or nothing to stem the rampant growth in online piracy of TV content in Hong Kong.” CASBAA urges the government to proceed rapidly to obtain enactment of this bill, and then move on rapidly to taking serious action to deal with the real problems of piracy in the digital age.

2012_Charles_Mok_400

CASBAA joins other Hong Kong industry associations in an exchange of views with Hong Kong legislators from the IT sector. On the left, IT Sector Representative Charles Mok, and Chief Policy Officer John Medeiros. At the right, directly-elected legislator Sin Chung-Kai.

Online Advertisement: A Key Financial Support for Pirate Websites

“A casual observer of the existing online ad market can only marvel at the Wild West aspect of the business.” – Annenberg Innovation Lab

An institute based at the University of Southern California has begun an ongoing series of reports on which online ad servers are providing essential financial support for web-based piracy.    The reports provide a fascinating look at the money flows that generate revenue for online copyright infringers.    Readers can find the ongoing series reports on the Annenberg Innovation Lab (AIL) website:  http://www.annenberglab.com/viewresearch/45 .

The most recent (February) report notes that some ad servers are “disconnecting” pirate websites.  The report says “both Google’s various networks and Open X have significantly reduced the number of infringing sites they are placing ads on. In contrast, Yahoo’s Right Media continues to be a major provider of ads to infringing sites.”    AIL also says “the other interesting note in this report is that Adultfriendfinder.com, which appears to be a prostitution service, has become a large advertiser on Pirate sites. This may mean that major brands are fleeing the pirate sites and leaving the inventory to the traditional bottom feeders in the porn industry.”

Readers can download the February report here

Join Our Efforts to Safeguard C-band Spectrum!

Asian broadcasting and satellite organizations have united to appeal for attention and support by companies in Asia’s many countries and regions for efforts to safeguard the satellite C-band frequencies which are the lifeblood of broadcast distribution in our region.  These Associations have issued a joint appeal, which we attach, and urge all CASBAA members to consider and implement.

C-band frequencies are under threat as the ITU seeks additional frequency spectrum to assign for broadband wireless systems.   Some mobile equipment manufacturers and mobile operating interests are mounting a concerted campaign to have the ITU declare part or all of the C-band as open for mobile use.  This would be disastrous for the broadcasting industry.

The Associations – which represent the entire breadth of the broadcasting industry in Asia — believe it is important that broadcasters act NOW; we ask the broadcast community to join efforts with the satellite industry to safeguard C-band spectrum for satellite services.  The joint statement attached describes what needs to be done.

This statement has been endorsed by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, the Asia-Pacific Satellite Communications Council, and CASBAA, as well as the World Broadcasting Union (International Satellite Operations Group and the Global VSAT Forum.

Document can be downloaded here

Singapore Revises Sports Sharing List

Singapore’s MDA has announced the conclusion of its consultation process on revision of that country’s designated content list.  (This is a list of specific sporting events that must be offered for broadcast on FTA television.  Singapore adopts the Australian practice of calling this an “antisiphoning” list, though the relevancy of that term outside Australia is questionable.)

The revisions continue a practice in effect since 2003.  In the latest revisions, the government made use of existing legal authorities to divide the list into two parts:  Category A, for which FTA television must be offered rights for live or near-live broadcast of the full event, and Category B, for which live broadcast may be only on pay-TV, but FTA TV must be offered rights for delayed broadcast (defined as after 48 hours after the event, unless the parties agree otherwise.)

A few items were removed from the 2003 list, including the local S-League soccer matches and the Winter Olympics (downgraded from Category A to Category B).   A few new items were added, including the final rounds of the FIFA World Cup and the F1 race in Singapore.

The outcome of the consultation is broadly in line with recommendations made at an earlier stage by an industry expert panel (which included both CASBAA and the two leading Singapore pay-TV platforms).   The pay-TV industry had sought an even shorter list.  That said, the conclusion of the process still leaves Singapore in the position of having a carefully defined and well-thought-out list that is limited in scope and balances national interest with commercial considerations in an equitable manner – far from the intrusive and one-sided policies adopted in some other markets in the Asia-Pacific region.

MDA issued a “Closing Note” to the consultation, (download here ) as well as a public notice, downloadable  here.

Asian Satellite Reps Describe C-band Interference Challenge

Asian Satellite Reps Describe C-band Interference Challenge

Thursday, 06 December 2012

CASBAA’s consultant Jorn Christensen and experts from member company Asiasat united to deliver a scientific paper and presentation to the prestigious IEEE Globecom 2012 conference in Anaheim, CA, USA on December 6, 2012.   Christensen told the 2,000 assembled delegates from the global electronics and communications industries that interference into satellite reception from terrestrial broadband wireless systems is a real and growing problem in many countries.   The likelihood is for the situation to get worse, he said, and the ITU is debating opening up the C-band for broader use, with potentially disastrous consequences.    Download the presentation above, and the scientific paper here.

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