This Blog Is Moving To UKPA.INFO

To celebrate the first anniversary of UK Podcasters Association, we're moving this blog to our new site, UKPA.INFO.



The existing site, ukpodcasters.org.uk will continue to function as a domain.

AIM Podcast License

Exciting developments in the world of UK music podcasting - UKPA has been in discussion with AIM (Association of Independent Music) about their podcast license. We anticipate making an announcement on this in the next few days.

Coming up in the UKPA Podcast: interview with Simon Wheeler, head of AIM Digital.

International Podcast Group

The UKPA along with affiliated organisations Podrepbod and Podcastverband have started the International Podcast Group.

Having set up the UKPA back in April 2006, affiliated to several other national groups, taken part the successful WIPO campaign, introduced the UK government to podcasting, advised several members in various legal and rights issues, and joined the Association of Online Publishers, we thought it would be a good idea to extend a democratic umbrella to podcasters internationally.

Our first aim is to form a collective global voice, democratically run, for the benefit of podcasters. If you are part of a group, and interested to be a founder member, we’d be glad for your involvement.

We are currently drafting our aims and we welcome input into this process.

Bye Bye, Britcaster, Hello National Grid

Popular UK forum Britcaster is to close 15th December, it was announced yesterday. Neil Dixon the man behind it, who now works for PodShow in the UK, has decided to pull the plug after two years.

A new forum, National Grid, is already in existance, set up by the UK Podcasters Association.

This UK Community Podcast forum is open to podcasters from anywhere in the world.

Sony Podcast Award

Next year's Sony Radio Awards will include The Internet Programme Award, which has been created specifically for streamed, Podcast and download programmes. UK Podcasters Association has been pushing for recognition, and a category to include podcasting.

"We now have a more level playing field," said UKPA Chairman Dean Whitbread. "Thanks go to Trevor Dann, head of the Radio Academy, who had the far-sightedness to organise a meeting with us on his first day in the job, and who persuaded me to join his organisation. It remains to be seen whether the award will go to one of the usual high-profile media suspects, or whether the judges will look at the great range of independently produced content that's out there."

Curry Wants A UKPA Tshirt

Photo by CC Chapman

This may thrill fans of the PodShow host, Adam Curry - about 14 minutes into his podcast Daily Source Code #504, he glowingly describes our fund-raising tshirt.

Tshirts cost £15. Leave comments here and we'll process your orders - all proceeds go to the UK Podcasters Association - a non-profit company.

Swecasters Join Hands Across The North Sea

A new podcast group, Swecasters, has emerged in Sweden which we happily welcome into the national podcast group fraternity. You have to be a native Swede to join this group.

Two Victories at WIPO!

Via Gwen Hinze, EFF, and Glyn Wintle, Open Rights Group:

The negotiations have been tough (we hear), but the 2007 WIPO General Assemblies have come to a close with two huge victories for the public interest. On the Broadcasting Treaty, while the GA agreed to convene a Diplomatic Conference in November/December 2007, we now have two welcome safeguards in place (document after the jump).

First, there will be two more meetings of the SCCR to work through some of the issues on which countries are still clearly divided (Technological Protection Measures, and coverage of certain Internet transmissions) and a "pre-conference" before the November/December dipcon. In effect, this represents a rejection by the GA of the recommendation passed amidst controversy at last month's WIPO Copyright Committee meeting (the SCCR). The previous schedule included only a pre-conference, at which nothing substantive would have been accomplished before a July Diplomatic Conference. The four month reprieve and two additional meetings are good news indeed. The full text of the decision follows, below.

Second, and most importantly, the GA's compromise has an escape clause that allows for the convening of a dipcon *only if all outstanding issues are resolved* in those two SCCR meetings. By implication, for the first time, WIPO has indicated that there might not be a diplomatic conference and a new treaty if all member countries can't reach agreement. An eminently appropriate outcome if countries are not able to reach agreement after almost nine years of negotiations.

It has also been decided that the treaty will now take a signal-based approach instead of the messy, dangerous rights-based approach that is used in the current treaty text. This, too, is good news for the Internet community, and reflects the concerns raised by many WIPO member countries at last month's meeting. There's much support for narrowing the treaty's overbroad scope to signal protection. The key question will now be how the next treaty draft reflects this in practice.

The colossal effort required to broker this deal was recognized when the meeting's Chair said, "I would like especially to thank Mr. Jukka Liedes, who must have lost a few kilos trying to work out this agreement." Liedes, the Chair of the infamous meeting earlier in September that closed by an unpopular "silence as consent" procedure, was charged with finding a compromise at the GA, and appears to have done so this time.

On the Development Agenda, there's good news also. The GA agreed to continue the dialogue, and most importantly, to keep all the issues on the table, not just those that have the support of the developed countries. The Assemblies agreed to extend the mandate of the Provisional Committee on Proposals Related to a WIPO Development Agenda (the now non-provisional PCDA).

And so we end this year's WIPO General Assemblies with good news on all fronts. We're mighty chuffed.

US Companies Say No To WIPO Broadcast Treaty

In brief: post about the group of US corporations who are asking the US Government to reject the Broadcast Treaty.

The companies are:

AT&T
Broadband Service Providers
Association
Cingular Wireless
Computer and Communications Industry
Association
Consumer Electronics Association
CTIA - The Wireless Association
Dell Inc.
Hewlett Packard Company
Home Recording Rights Coalition
Intel Corporation
Panasonic Corporation of North America
RadioShack Corporation
Sony Electronics Incorporated
TiVo Inc.
U.S. Internet Industry Association
USTelecom
Verizon Communications Inc.
Verizon Wireless

Lack of formatting to follow - I'm pasting this from email...

---

This afternoon a coalition of industry groups submitted the following
Request for US Government Opposition to Advancing a Diplomatic Treaty
Conference on the Proposed WIPO Treaty on the Protection of
Broadcasting Organizations From Certain Information Technology,
Consumer Electronics and Telecommunications Industry Representatives.

Contact:
James M. Burger
Attorney at Law
Dow Lohnes
1200 New Hampshire Avenue, NW Suite 800 Washington, DC 20036-6802
T 202-776-2300
F 202-776-4300
E jburger@dowlohnes.com
www.dowlohnes.com


*********************************************************************
REQUEST FOR US GOVERNMENT OPPOSITION TO ADVANCING A DIPLOMATIC TREATY
CONFERENCE ON THE PROPOSED WIPO TREATY ON THE PROTECTION OF
BROADCASTING ORGANIZATIONS FROM CERTAIN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY,
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY REPRESENTATIVES

On behalf of the undersigned companies and associations, many of whom
attended last week's SCCR 15th session in Geneva, we would like to
express our concerns about the controversial decision to convene a
Diplomatic Conference on the proposed WIPO Treaty on the Protection
of Broadcasting Organizations which is proposed for mid-2007. We ask
that the US Government reach out to other country delegations and
express its objections to proceeding with a Diplomatic Conference at
this time.

The outcome of last week's meeting leaves us with broad draft treaty
language which is not limited to signal theft, does not address
network intermediary liability, does not adequately address
limitations and exceptions, and includes broad technical protection
measure (TPM) protections language. In addition, the actual text of
proposed treaty language, which would form the basis of a diplomatic
conference, was, at the end of last week's meeting, very much up in
the air.

During the last day of the 15th SCCR, the Chairman did promote a
different approach to developing a treaty. His approach appears to
provide a basic framework more consistent with both US law and the
undersigned companies' interests. In addition, it is our view as
observers that there was growing support for such an approach on the
floor. Given the amount of disagreement regarding the SCCR 15/2 text,
and the strong support throughout these negotiations by most
delegations for protecting signals only, we do not believe that it is
appropriate to proceed to a Diplomatic Conference without doing so on
the basis of a text which clearly has consensus and is focused on
such an approach.

In discussions between industry and delegations, we detected shared
concerns regarding the state of the SCCR 15/2 text. We believe that
the US Delegation should engage in bilateral outreach to a number of
countries that expressed concern and seek support to: (1) reject
moving forward with a Diplomatic Conference until there is a stable
text; (2) narrow the treaty's scope to signal theft; (3) narrow the
term of protection; (4) ensure limitations on network intermediary
liability; (5) ensure other appropriate limitations and exceptions,
such as excluding home and personal networks; and, (6) exclude TPMs
from the scope of the treaty.

We appreciated the opportunity to consult with the US Delegation and
we were disappointed that the initial objections they raised at the
meeting about proceeding with a Diplomatic Conference were ignored.
We therefore would encourage the USG to send a follow up letter to
the Director General of WIPO and other appropriate parties further
expressing its strong objections to authorizing a Diplomatic
Conference at the General Assembly.

Should there be a proposal to convene the SCCR again in early 2007 to
consider a redraft of the Draft Basic Proposal based on the
Chairman's outline and associated comments, as well as the many
interventions of a similar nature by other delegations including the
USA at SCCR 15, such a draft text should be developed and broadly
circulated before such a meeting is held. No Diplomatic Conference
should be authorized until there is a real consensus text.

The role of WIPO in norm setting is extremely important to the
undersigned, all of whom are significant intellectual property
holders. Given the unstable condition of the current draft treaty,
there is a low probability of a successful Diplomatic Conference. The
damage to the institution of a failed Diplomatic Conference would
detract from international intellectual property norm setting - a
fate all of the undersigned wish to avoid.

We recognize that there is limited time to undertake outreach to
other country delegations; however, we believe this outreach is
critical. We stand ready to meet with the US Delegation at any time
to further express our concerns and lend our support.

AT&T
Broadband Service Providers
Association
Cingular Wireless
Computer and Communications Industry
Association
Consumer Electronics Association
CTIA - The Wireless Association
Dell Inc.
Hewlett Packard Company
Home Recording Rights Coalition
Intel Corporation
Panasonic Corporation of North America
RadioShack Corporation
Sony Electronics Incorporated
TiVo Inc.
U.S. Internet Industry Association
USTelecom
Verizon Communications Inc.
Verizon Wireless

************************************************
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology
1621 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20009 USA
Tel.: +1.202.332.2670, Ext 16 Fax: +1.202.332.2673

Consumer Project on Technology
1 Route des Morillons, CP 2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 791 6727

Consumer Project on Technology
24 Highbury Crescent, London, N5 1RX, UK
Tel: +44(0)207 226 6663 ex 252 Fax: +44(0)207 354 0607




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Subscriptions

I was asked to explain the reasons why individual members of the UKPA need to pay £36.00 per year membership.

1 : Lobbying
The UKPA is a fledgling organisation with new podcasters requesting to join every day. We envisage that by Christmas our membership will represent at least half of the serious podcasters in the country. Our members will expect the UKPA to actively research, lobby and protest any new and draconian legislation that will be introduced by any governmental or official body that seeks to licence or impede the progress of this new communication. This will have financial implications as we will need to canvas membership and run a campaign office with administrative staff that will not always include volunteers.

2 : Credibility
Anyone can form a club, its easy, you get two or three people that do the same thing and say "lets form a club" - The UKPA represents and protects the interests of UK podcasters. Membership entitles you to use that when you are making your own headway in the podcasting community. It gives you credibility as a podcaster and proves that you are committed to the medium and will not just treat podcasting as a five minute wonder, producing one or two podcasts and then dropping it, as has happened in the blogging community, this will cloud the podcasting arena for genuine podcasters. The UKPA badge represents a sign of quality and gives gravitas to you as a podcaster.

3 : Association
As a group the UKPA can affiliate itself to larger and more established bodies that have a huge amount of clout in the new media arena. This way, by default, we have more muscle. Becoming members of quality organisations of course costs money and as we are a democratic organisation we will inform and request feedback from our membership as to what bodies we join.

4 : Community
Podcasting can be a solitary business as it is a fledgling medium. By becoming a member you become part of the ever increasing podcast "family" and can identify other family members through the display of the UKPA badge.The UKPA will be organising meetings, forums, seminars and conferences where members can meet, exchange ideas, find out about new innovations and discuss issues.

If any member would like to add reasons, argue against or make suggestions then please do not hesitate to comment on this blog, or email the UKPA at : members[at]ukpodcasters[dot]org[dot]uk

Thank you

Mark Crook

Treasurer, UK Podcasters Association

Pods and Blogs

Nice to see the trusty BBC taking an active interest.

Michael Geist on WIPO

Canadian Internet law professor Michael Geist on the Broadcast Treaty - BBC article.

Michael Geist's blog.