The Electronic Frontier Foundation, along with a variety of individual podcasters and podcasting-related organizations, have released a joint statement opposing a new draft treaty being considered by the World Intellectual Property Organization, fearing that it could stifle innovation in podcasting and other forms of Internet distribution.

“The Treaty will stifle innovation in podcasting-related technologies because the Treaty would require signatory countries to provide legal protection for technological protection measures (TPM) and is likely to lead to technology mandate laws controlling the design of broadcast-receiving devices. The Treaty will also inhibit online communication by impeding access to and non-infringing use of copyrighted content.”

Full text of the statement follows below.

Joint Statement of Podcasting Organizations and Podcasters on the Proposed Wipo Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasts and Broadcasting Organizations Presented to 15th Session of Wipo Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights

We, the undersigned individuals and organizations, representing the views of thousands of individuals who create audio and audiovisual podcasts and make them available on the Internet for others to listen to and enjoy, are extremely concerned about the draft World Intellectual Property Organization Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasts and Broadcasting Organizations (the Treaty) and its proposed extension to the Internet.

The rapid adoption of podcasting by groups and individuals, both commercial, semi-professional and non-profit, for political commentary, news reporting, music distribution, and other important information dissemination is testament to its effectiveness. The Treaty proposes to create new rights that are not only unnecessary to sustain novel forms of online communication such as podcasting, but will also inhibit their growth.

The Treaty will stifle innovation in podcasting-related technologies because the Treaty would require signatory countries to provide legal protection for technological protection measures (TPM) and is likely to lead to technology mandate laws controlling the design of broadcast-receiving devices. The Treaty will also inhibit online communication by impeding access to and non-infringing use of copyrighted content. At the same time, where podcasts are made available under a Creative Commons licence, the Treaty could allow subsequent casters to make podcasts available on more restrictive terms, overriding the wishes of the podcast creator.

We oppose the extension of the draft Treaty to the Internet for three reasons.

1. There is no need for the proposed new rights. Webcasting, podcasting, and myriad other forms of online distribution have flourished without the sort of rights this Treaty would grant. Though podcasting is only in its infancy, tens of thousands of podcasts are already being made available, reaching an estimated total audience in the millions. To the extent this Treaty would grant rights to podcasters who also stream their content, including many of the undersigned, we have no desire for such rights.
2. Innovation in podcasting and other new Internet distribution tools will suffer. Podcasting came about because of the widespread adoption of general purpose portable audio players like iPods, as well as use of web syndication technologies like RSS. Had these novel tools been hampered by the secondary liability concerns that the treaty’s overbroad intellectual property rights pose for technology developers and manufacturers of devices that could be used to infringe the new rights, podcasting might never have flourished. This Treaty would hinder innovation in future tools by forcing technology developers to obey government TPM mandates over device design. Along with increasing the potential financial costs for innovators, the TPM mandates will limit the types of features on new devices.
3. Extending the Treaty to the Internet will harm the flow of information and free speech online. Podcasters’ freedom of expression is likely to suffer as a result of reduced innovation. Moreover, the treaty will impede podcasters’ access to and non-infringing use of copyrighted content. Podcasters can currently rely on national copyright laws to lawfully include copyrighted materials in their programs, whether for news reporting, education, or other permitted uses. The proposed Treaty would undermine those uses by layering a new and overbroad set of rights on top of copyright. This will require a second layer of rights clearance for transmitted materials. This will increase transaction costs for podcasters, who already face significant hurdles in obtaining necessary copyright clearances due to undeveloped licensing markets. But it will also give broadcasters the ability to silence podcasters who depend on use of copyrighted materials.

Signatories (As at 11 September 2006):

United Kingdom Podcasters’ Association (UKPA)
http://ukpodcasters.org.uk

PodRepBod (Ireland)
http://podireland.org/

German Podcastverband

U.S. Podcast Guild

Ev Williams
Odeo, Inc., USA

Emmanuelle Bordes, Canada

Frederick Wells, USA

Andrew Hoehler, USA

Cory Doctorow, USA
The Cory Doctorow Podcast

James Anthony Christian, United Kingdom
The Posithink Podcast (http://www.posithink.net)

Jonathan M. Reiter, USA, Oregon Free Culture Movement.

Michael Thebo, United States of America
Podcaster of the Twilight and Thebes Show

Stephanie Thebo,United States of America
Podcaster of the Twilight and Thebes Show

Miles Metcalfe
Head of IT Research and Development
Ravensbourne College of Design & Communication
Chislehurst, United Kingdom
http://www.rave.ac.uk/

Jon Berlin, USA

Melissa Gira, USA
melissagira.com, ‘whorecast’

Matthew Wayne Selznick, USA
MWS Media

Tomislav Medak, Croatia
Multimedia Institute, http://www.mi2.hr

Brandon McGrody

Alan Wolf, Ph.D, USA

Patrick Buckley, USA

Douglas E. Welch, USA
Career Opportunities Podcast

Kevin H. Devin
In the Trenches podcast, http://kevindevin.com
Friends in Tech, http://www.friendsintech.com

Jamie Nelson, USA
The Didgeplanet Podcast

Kara Shallenberg
http://kayray.org/; http://librivox.org/

Cheryl Oda

Chuck Tomasi
http://www.chuckchat.com/

Steven Garrity

James L. Johnson Jr., USA

Mark Rafferty

Janne Jalkanen, Finland
podcaster (“Saunan Takaa”, and “Verkkokakkonen”)

Martin McKeay, CISSP, CCNA
The Network Security Podcast
http://www.mckeay.net/
http://podcastroundtable.com/

James M. Van Verth
The Vintage Gamer podcast, www.thevintagegamer.net

Dennis R. Miller

Laura Ross
coffeeandteashow.com
rockyhorrorpodshow.libsyn.com

Wrong Notes Podcast, The Music Blog of the Ear Reverends
HearJam Records
http://earreverends.com/

Stephen Okay, USA

Billy Bowers

Michael C Young, Canada

Ron Brinkmann
Co-host VFXShow Podcast

Victor Cajiao
Typical PC User Podcast, www.typicalpcuser.com
Typical Mac User Podcast, www.typicalmacuser.com
Immigration Tales Podcast, www.immigrationtales.com

Brian Vawter

Strange Company

Dennis Hays
http://www.haysdesign.com
Secrets of Digital Imaging, http://www.imagingsecrets.com
Photo News Today, http://photonewstoday.com
The Blues and Jazz Show, http://bluesandjazz.thepodcastnetwork.com

The Command Line Podcast
http://thecommandline.net/

Daniel Emery

William J. Beaty, USA

The Pixel Corps, Guild of Digital Content Creators, 2000 members in 35 countries
Producers of “Macbreak”, “Macbreak Weekly”, “this WEEK in MEDIA”

Michael Croke

Samantha Murphy
SMtv Podcast
http://www.samanthamurphy.com

Neal Foley
The Podchef
http://www.podchef.motime.com
feeds.feedburner.com/podchef

Rick Kleffel
Editor, The Agony Column
Book Reviews, News, Interviews and Commentary
http://trashotron.com/agony

Christian Splie United Kingdom Podcasters’ Association (UKPA)

German Podcastverband

U.S. Podcast Guild

Ev Williams Odeo, Inc., USA

Emmanuelle Bordes, Canada

Frederick Wells, USA

Andrew Hoehler, USA

Cory Doctorow, USA The Cory Doctorow Podcast

James Anthony Christian, United Kingdom The Posithink Podcast (http://www.posithink.net) , Germany

David Tarleton
Tarleton/Dawn Productions
Creative Mythology Podcast
http://DavidTarleton.com

Greg Mills, USA

Michael L Bell

Philip Crookes, New Zealand
Double-Z Productions
Primetime Radio 1ZZ

Dave Shepherd
Producer, The Word Nerds, http://thewordnerds.org

Jon Lebkowsky, USA
Chairman, AssistOrg
President, EFF-Austin
Consultant to WorldChanging.com

Zack Dowell, USA

Alex Kelly

Jose E. Roman-Garcia

Keith Brackin

Luke Stapley
www.gameaddicthotline.com

Gareth Hunt

Dan Klass, USA
JacketMedia.com
Producer of “The Bitterest Pill”. “Old Wave Radio: New 80’s Music” and several
corporate podcasts
Co-Author, “PODCAST SOLUTIONS: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO PODCASTING”

Steve Borsch
http://www.iConnectDots.com

Brett And Greg, Australia
In Yarraville Tonight podcast

Jon Lucca
The Schmoejoes

Stephen Conway
The Spiel, a regular podcast about games and the people who love them
http://thespiel.net

Dan “On Tap” and Sheryl The Drunken Clam Girl
“Life On Tap” Podcast, http://www.lifeontap.net/

AudioLuxe, Inc, USA
www.audioluxe.org

James Raygan Kelly
Co-Producer Dollars: Dog of Privilege Podcast, http://dollars.libsyn.com

Carl Malamud, USA
Chief Technology Officer, Center for American Progress, Washington, D.C.
Founder of the Internet Multicasting Service, distributor of first audio programs on the Internet in 1993.

George Nemeth, USA
Managing Partner, Meet The Bloggers LLC
Meet The Bloggers podcast

Paul Parkinson
Podcaster and Editor of Podcast User Magazine
http://www.audiolingo.org

Anja Ivekovic-Martinis, Croatia

Howard Shepherd

Goran Pavlic, Croatia

Tobias D. Robison, USA

Peter Scheidl

David Bruce Hughes

Rick Jackson
Publisher,
www.wonderaudio.com

Howard Chang

Action for civil transparency (ACT)
Non-governmental organization, Croatia

Nenad Baric, Croatia
Confusion – association for promoting audio-visual arts

Robert Newson
Publisher of original Creative Commons-licensed music at
http://feeds.feedburner.com/Newsonic

Podiobooks.com (representing 50+ authors releasing audio versions of their books under Creative Commons license)

Lauren McLaughlin

Maggie Bonham
Host of the Sci Fi Traveling Road Show

Mark Junk

John Remmers

Alex Killough
Webmaster/Podcaster/Archivist
PublicDuck Video Podcast
http://publicduck.com

Rob Walch, USA
podCast411
Co-Author: “Tricks of the Podcasting Masters”; producer of Senator John Edwards Podcast.

Aron E. Michalski, USA
Disembodied Voices Podcasting Group/Musical Logistics

David Smith

Jeff Bone, USA

Tris Hussey, Canada
http://blog.larixconsulting.com/

Kurt Leinbach, USA

SomaFM.com, USA
Internet radio and podcast

Hal Bringman
(new)VenturePR, http://www.nvpr.com

Ramin Assemi, Germany

Craig Schwartz, USA
earbud.com

John Griffith

Joseph Malone

Nikola Tojaga

Mario Matic, Hungary

Chris Matthews, USA

Phillip H. Griffin, USA

Tina Bell Vance, USA

Christiaan Briggs
\
Adam Semijalac

Kyle Klipowicz, USA
http://theradioproject.com

Ivan Marusic, Croatia

Mark Milliman
http://feeds.feedburner.com/MarkMsMusings

John Parman & Maureen Fiedler, USA
Podcasters of syndicated public radio program Interfaith Voices
http://www.interfaithradio.org

Scott Davey, USA
Vodcast: Hyperplex

Ron Hipschman, USA
San Francisco Exploratorium
http://www.exploratorium.edu

Kosso
CTO, http://podcast.com

Gui Leite, Brazil
http://lostcast.com.br

Denise Howell

Gregor Gable

Harold A Reed
The DARN PC Podcast,
http://www.darnpc.com

Stephen Eley
Escape Artists, Inc.
Escape Pod (http://escapepod.org), Pseudopod (http://pseudopod.org)

Steven A. Perez, USA

Paul Puri
Chairman-Podcast Guild Planning Committee
http://podcastguild.org

Felix Wong, Hong Kong
Producer Podsafe Music S.A.R. podcast (http://psmsar.com)

Matthew Stewart-Fulton

Chuck Olsen, USA

Minnesota Stories, http://mnstories.com

Jan Zuppinger, Switzerland
pieceocast @ pieceoplastic.com
http://pieceoplastic.com/wp-rss2.php?category_name=pieceocast

Paddy Smith
Editor, Stuff magazine (Middle East edition)

Andrea Kustic

Sean Ferry
FourOnesMedia.com

Hopesome, China
PodcastPodium ()

Andy Sternberg, Los Angeles
netZoo http://netzoo.net
USC Center on Public Diplomacy Podcasts http://uscpublicdiplomacy.com/events
Annenberg Radio News Podcasts http://annenbergradio.org

Rob Williams
Producer of Creative Commons-licenced Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Medicine Podcasts

Richard Swinburne, U.K.
NBS-Review.net podcasting

Gerrit van Aaken, Germany
Designer and Programmer of Loudblog, a podcasting publishing software
http://loudblog.de