The United States delivered its general statement to the 23rd session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) on Monday, 21 November 2011. The following text is captured from WIPO’s live stream of this meeting.
UNITED STATES: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First the United States would like to congratulate you on the extraordinary leadership you showed during our last session. And we look forward to your leadership for this session. United States would also like to thank the Secretariat Director General Francis Gurry and the assistant Director General Trevor Clark for their extraordinary work both behind the scenes and on the dais. Concerning the audiovisual performance treaty like all other delegations that have spoken the United States is keys pleased that the General Assembly accepted the recommendations for this committee to resume the diplomatic conference. To resolve the final outstanding issue of the text. More importantly we are tremendously pleased at the goodwill of all Member States as we worked on that project.Concerning persons with print disabilities, we like other delegations believe that the book famine based by the blind must be addressed and can be addressed in a reasonable and balanced manner that safeguards the integrity of the Copyright system. We look forward to making further progress based on the Chairman’s text as we work towards an instrument to establish clear norms for copyright exceptions for persons with print disabilities. We have some questions and comments on the Chairman’s text. Some are technical and some are substantive but we thank you for your leadership in this regard and we do believe that that should be the basis for going forward in our discussions in this Committee.
As to exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives, this is a topic that is very important to the United States. We have extensively developed our own national exceptions in this area and we are frequently reflecting and studying our national exceptions to ensure that they meet the needs of the current technological environment. We look forward to a discussion on the limitations and exceptions of national laws that enable library and archives to carry out their public mission. United States is also committed to working with other Member States on the question of a treaty for broadcasting organizations and we hope progress will be achieved towards the adoption of a treaty with a signal based approach and with in line with the parameters established by the General Assemblies in 2006 and 2007. Mr. Chairman, in that spirit we look forward they very much on the informal consultation on the draft treaty. At the last SCCR we expressed concern about meeting fatigue of having an assembly of this Committee that actually stretches across two weeks. While we are here to work hard for these two weeks we do agree with the Director General that it is important to find a formula by which the committee can return to its one week sessions. Finally Mr. Chairman with that in mind we look forward to at the moment at the end of this meeting to commemorate the end of a successful two week marathon SCCR session by having with you and other delegations a glass of fine tequila. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.