Danny sez,
Last year, WIPO looked like it had acknowledge the letters from podcasters, and leading tech companies complaining about the language of its Broadcast Treaty — which would have created a whole new layer of IP for broadcasters to claim on even public domain and CC-licensed content streamed over the Net. They said they'd dump the old format, and narrow the treaty to what it was supposed to be about — outlawing outright piracy of transmitted signals.
This May, the WIPO chair put forward a new version of the treaty that – tada – contained exactly the same enclosure act IP rights, and even included language that would mean every PC would have to be crippled to prevent it decoding encrypted transmissions.
EFF and others are at WIPO this week: they'll be delivering this Dear WIPO petition to let the IP apparatchiks know they're being watched. Sign it now!
(Thanks, Danny!)
