Year: 2012

KEI collection of various interviews, statements and news clips from the December 17-18, 2012 WIPO Extraordinary General Assembly that approved a June 2013 diplomatic conference to negotiate a treaty on copyright exceptions for persons with certain disabilities.

Video Interviews

Video interviews from the WIPO Extraordinary General Assembly, after reaching a landmark decision to:

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Geneva, Tuesday, 18 December.2012

At the end of the two day WIPO Extraordinary General Assembly, Member States today agreed “to negotiate and adopt a treaty on limitations and exceptions for visually impaired persons/persons with print disabilities.”

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Here is a link to the WIPO press release: WIPO Advances Toward Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works by Persons with Print Disabilities, Morocco Offers to Host Diplomatic Conference Geneva, December 18, 2012,PR/2012/727

Here is the WBU press release:

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WORLD BLIND UNION (WBU) press release 18 December 2012

Press Release – WIPO Negotiations Treaty for Blind people

WIPO member states call for treaty for blind people to be finished in 2013

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After a tense day of negotiation with all sorts of threats to block progress, it seems as though World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is poised to approve a diplomatic conference “to negotiate and adopt a treaty on limitations and exceptions for visually impaired persons/persons with print disabilities.” The USA had come into the meeting trying to downgrade the agreement from a treaty to an agreement of ambiguous non-treaty status, and both the US and the EU wanted today’s decision to be subject to a later approval — dubbed either the kill switch or the safety Continue Reading →

Venezuela delivered the following statement on 17 December 2012 at the WIPO Extraordinary General Assembly.

VENEZUELA: Thank you, Chairman.

Likewise, we, too, wish to extend thanks to the Director General and the Secretariat and the ambassador of Zambia for his successful leading work in the SCCR. We support the holding of a Diplomatic Conference on this subject. It will be a very significant political signal if we were to convene this conference which has very major human rights over tones.

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This was the statement delivered today (17 December 2012) by Egypt on behalf of the African Group at the Forty-Second (22nd Extraordinary) Session of the WIPO General Assembly.

African Group. The African Group would like to welcome the significant progress achieved on advancing the draft text of WIPO Treaty on limitations and exceptions for visually impaired persons, person with print disabilities, which was adopted in November 2012 by the Standing Committee to Copyright and Related Rights, in its 25th session.

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Morocco delivered this statement today (17 December 2012) announcing its formal candidacy to host a Diplomatic Conference in June 2013.

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Right before noon at the December 17, 2012 Extraordinary General Assembly, the US read the statement below. Here are a couple of quick comments.

1. The US Statement supports a diplomatic conference, but aligns itself with the EU, calling for a later “final review” of “many outstanding issues,” so only a tentative decision would be made now, and if the EU or USA is not satisfied with concessions from developing countries, they want to be able to revoke the approval for the meeting.

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This was the statement delivered by Benin on behalf of least-developed countries at the Forty-Second (22nd Extraordinary) Session of the WIPO General Assembly on 17 December 2012.

BENIN: Thank, Chairman. I do thank you for giving me the floor. I would like to begin here by apologizing on behalf of my ambassador. He would have loved to be with us this morning, but unfortunately he had other commitments and he was unable to attend this meeting.

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