This week at WIPO, delegates are negotiating the proposed Broadcast Treaty. This treaty has a "webcasting" option. With this option enabled, anyone making available a combination of sounds and images on the internet would receive a new kind of monopoly powers over that "webcast".
Richard Stallman has aptly called these "skunk odor powers": They stick to anything, they spread, and there's no way to get them off.
Now, Jamie Love shows us how easy it is to become a webcaster. He has simply set up a pages with a few links to video files. The only additional trick is that he is calling himself a "broadcasting organisation" now.
Robin Gross of IPJustice is currently featured on IP-Watch with a longer text about the treaty and the negotiations.
UPDATE: There are people blogging the negotiations. They include Gwen Hinze of EFF and Thiru Balasubramaniam of CPTech. For summarised reporting, see the excellent-as-usual IP-Watch.
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