In 2006, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was inches away from finalizing a treaty that would have crippled Internet broadcasting. Called the WIPO Broadcasting Treaty, it gave traditional broadcasters and cablecasters new copyright-like rights over their transmissions, including control over Internet retransmissions of broadcasts and cablecasts. Creating these rights is not only unnecessary to incentivize new forms of online communication such as podcasting and videoblogging, but will also inhibit the growth of these new citizen-generated media.

First, the Treaty will inhibit online communication by impeding access to and non-infringing use of copyrighted content. For podcasters and video bloggers, it will increase the complexity of obtaining rights clearance and reduce online freedom of expression. At the same time, where creative works are made available under a Creative Commons licence, the Treaty could allow subsequent casters to make them available on more restrictive terms, overriding the wishes of the podcast creator.

Second, the treaty will stifle innovation in podcasting-related technologies and new Internet distribution tools. It would require signatory countries to provide legal protection for technological protection measures. That could lead to technology mandate laws controlling the design of broadcast-receiving devices.

In an astounding turnaround last year, WIPO Member States told the WIPO Secretariat to rewrite the Treaty and make it focus more narrowly on signal protection. Thanks to the efforts of technology companies, independent podcasters, and activists, the delegates agreed that the treaty shouldn't be premised on creating new rights, which would lead to more litigation that would stifle new technologies and harm citizen-run Web broadcasting activities. Instead, any new treaty should be based on protection of broadcast signals. This was a huge victory for podcasters, their fans, and innovative business that are pushing video on the web.

Then, in May of this year, WIPO released a "new" draft of the treaty that looks disconcertingly like the old one. Sure, there was some tinkering around the edges, but the Treaty still gives broadcasters and cablecasters new exclusive rights, and it still covers transmission over the Internet. Worse, it includes an expanded technological protection measure provision that could ban any unauthorised "device or system capable of decrypting an encrypted broadcast" - which means all modern personal computers!

Don't let WIPO get away with this shell-game. It promised to draft a narrow treaty, and it should be held to that promise. Sign our petition today and help stop WIPO's Treaty from breaking citizen-run broadcasting!