The December 1996 WIPO Diplomatic Conference

Union for the Public Domain's Page on

The December 1996 Diplomatic Conference of WIPO

(The World Intellectual Property Organization)

[UPD's Main Page] [UPD's NII Copyright Page]

Union for the Public Domain's December 18, 1996 Open Letter to the Delegates of the WIPO Diplomatic Conference

General WIPO Documents

The WIPO Copyright Treaty as it passed.
The WIPO Performances Treaty as it passed.
WIPO's Basic Proposal for Substantive Provisions of the Treaty on Intellectual Property in Respect of Databases, (August 30, 1996)
The WIPO Press Release about the Treaties.
December 18, 1996 Open Letter to the Delegates of the WIPO Diplomatic Conference signed by Union for the Public Domain and several other groups. The letter was delivered on December 18, 1996.
Seth Greenstein's Daily Updates on the WIPO Treaty Negotiations
List of Documents Distributed at the WIPO Diplomatic Conference
Here is the full text of Federal Register notice, on the Request for Comments on the Chairman's Text of the Diplomatic Conference on Certain Copyright and Neighboring Rights Questions, To Be Held in Geneva From December 2 to 20, 1996.
Here are drafts of the three proposed WIPO Treaties, from the Library of Congress (these versions were never adopted).

Comments of Stakeholders

December 18, 1996 Union for the Public Domain's Open Letter to the Delegates of the WIPO Diplomatic Conference
December 10, 1996 Letter to President Clinton from the C.E.O.s of Eleven major companies on the WIPO treaty proposals
December 5, 1996 A press briefing on the WIPO Treaties given at the United Nations building in Geneva by James Love of the Consumer Project on Technology
November 25, 1996: National Writers Union Calls for a Delay in Approval of WIPO Treaty
November 25, 1996 Letter to Vice President Gore from the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) opposing the WIPO treaty
November 22, 1996 Letter from the Association for Computing regarding the proposed protocols to the Berne Convention to be discussed at the WIPO conference
November 22, 1996: Comments of ACIS (American Committee for Interoperable Systems) on the WIPO proposal
November 22, 1996 Comments of the U.S. Government Printing Office on the WIPO Database Treaty
November 22, 1996 Comments of the Electronic Frontier Foundation on the WIPO proposals
November 22, 1996 Letter from the Association for Computing on the WIPO database proposal
November 22, 1996 Letter from Stats, Inc. on the WIPO Treaty. Stats, Inc. is a major publisher of sports statistics. (see also CPT's Web Page on Intellectual Property and Sports Statistics)
November 22, 1996 Letter from Dun and Bradstreet on the proposed database protection treaty
November 22, 1996 Letter from Bloomberg L.P. on the WIPO proposed database treaty
November 21, 1996 letter by Software Developers in Opposition to WIPO Database Treaty. Very thoughtful discussion of impact of the database treaty on Internet routing infrastructure, domain names, and searching services.
November 18, 1996. Federal Networking Advisory Council's Advisory Committee Resolution on WIPO - Proposed Database Treaty.
November 18, 1996 memo by Alan Sugarman, Database Protection -- Tilting the Copyright Balance - II. Alan is the owner of Hyperlaw, a U.S. legal publisher.
November 10, 1996. James Love "Government Proposes New Regulation of Sports Statistics and other "facts," First published in INFO-POLICY-NOTES. (see also CPT's Web Page on Intellectual Property and Sports Statistics)
November 7, 1996 Letter from the Library of Congress on the proposed WIPO treaties
November 7, 1996 Letter from five national library organizations in opposition to the database treaty.
October 29, 1996, James Love "A Primer On The Proposed WIPO Treaty On Database Extraction Rights That Will Be Considered In December 1996 First published in Info-Policy-Notes.
October 9, 1996 letter in opposition to the database treaty from the presidents of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
Information Industry Association (IIA): Industry Perspectives on Database Protection. IIA says it is the main trade association pushing for the treaty.
Undated Analysis of the database treaty by Aslib (The Association for Information Management), a British organization
EBLIDA Position Paper on the Proposed WIPO Copyright Treaties EBLIDA is "an independent non-governmental and non-commercial umbrella association of national library, information and documentation associations and organizations in Europe."

Comments of Academic Experts

Pamela Samuelson: Legally Speaking: Legal Protections for Database Contents, forthcoming in 39 Communications of the ACM (November, 1996)
J.H. Reichman and Pamela Samuelson: Intellectual Property Rights in Data: An Assault on the Worldwide Public Interest in Research and Development (Draft), forthcoming in 50 Vanderbilt Law Review (January, 1997)
August 28, 1996. Peter Jaszi, "Some Public Interest Considerations Relating to H.R. 3531 Database Investment and Intellectual Property Antipiracy Act of 1996", first published in the August edition of the Association of Research Libraries Federal Relations E-News.
This is a pretty interesting debate between American University Law Professor Jamie Boyle and the PTO's Bruce Lehman over the "NII Copyright" legislation.
Papers written by Jessica Litman, a Law Professor at Wayne State University Law School
November 21, 1996 Letter from fifty law professors opposing the WIPO proposals (submitted to USPTO)
Pamela Samuelson's Copyright Grab
Pamela Samuelson: Questioning the Need for New International Rules on Authors' Rights in Cyberspace
Paul Geller: Some Questions on the WIPO Digital Agenda (October 23, 1996)

Press Coverage

December 16, 1996 Proposed Treaty on Copyright Spurs Debate New York Times article by Denise Caruso (The New York Times Website requires a password, though it is free).
December 13, 1996 Statement from the US Delegation to the WIPO Conference about fair use and the internet. Appeared in the USIS Geneva Daily Bulletin
December 13, 1996 U.S. Says "Fair Use" Exemption Should Apply to the Internet Article by Wendy Lubetkin from the USIS Geneva Daily Bulletin
December 7, 1996 An Eye on Geneva , a Washington Post ediorial about the WIPO treaties
December 5, 1996 Global Copyright Treaties Slammed by U.S. Lobby by Tani Freedman (Copyright AFP 1996, reproduced here with permission)
December 4, 1996 USIS (United States Information Service article by Wendy Lubetkin "New Treaties Would Update Copyright Law for the Digital Age: Critics Worry Protections Would Stifle Internet Use
December 3, 1996 Internet Links Could Take a Hit in Scottish Feud an Op-Ed in the Christian Science Monitor by David Rothman
December 2, 1996 Piracy Treaty is a Real Turkey by Dan Gilmor appeared in the San Jose Mercury News
November 25, 1996 Who Will Control 21st Century Data? by Eamonn Sullivan, in PC Week.
November 17, 1996 Sacramento Bee editorial about the WIPO database treaty
February 23, 1996 Story about Bruce Lehman allegedly threatening to "Rip Jamie Boyle's throat out and chase him to the ends of the Earth" in Information Law Alert

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