As part of WIPO's Digital Agenda, a WIPO Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations is envisioned to adapt broadcasters' rights to the digital era. Advocates of this treaty from the broadcasting industry observe that relevant international agreements do not offer sufficient protection because advances in broadcasting technology and the parallel evolution of the industry are not covered by the terms of existing agreements. These proponents note that the primary agreement covering broadcasting and cablecasting rights, the Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations, was concluded in 1961 and predates home audio and video recording, telecommunications satellite systems and consumer satellite dishes, digital technology, wireless networks, and the ability of consumers to receive broadcasts via computer or mobile telephone. Accordingly, proponents assert the Convention does not adequately protect these new modes of broadcasting. The proposed new broadcasting treaty would grant broadcasting and cablecasting organizations protection of their program transmissions for a fixed term of years, enabling them to prohibit copying and redistribution of transmissions without authorization, which could be enforced through technological means of preventing circumvention of encrypted transmissions and the like. Such protections would be distinct from the copyright of the creators of the content for program transmissions. However, opponents of the treaty respond that it is not necessary, noting that the development of the broadcasting industry in the United States has not been hurt by the fact that it is not even a party to the Rome Convention. At its first session in November 1998, the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) decided to pursue in earnest discussions and submissions concerning the text of a new broadcasting treaty. Since 2004, the SCCR has been pushing for a diplomatic conference for final negotiations and adoption of a treaty; however, after ten years and 17 sessions plus two special sessions of preliminary negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, no consensus has been reached on a text adequate for a diplomatic conference. At its May 2006 meeting, the SCCR decided to drop webcasting (transmitting over the Internet) and simulcasting (transmitting simultaneously via traditional broadcasting over the air and on the Internet) from the scope of the treaty, placing them into a separate, parallel negotiating track. The United States was almost the sole proponent of including webcasting in the treaty and had tried to bolster support for it by linking it to simulcasting, which the European Union advocated. The SCCR hoped to increase the likelihood of successfully concluding the treaty by dropping these highly controversial issues. At its fall 2006 meeting, the WIPO General Assembly tentatively agreed to convene a diplomatic conference in November/December 2007 to conclude a treaty for the protection of only traditional broadcasting organizations and cablecasting organizations, contingent on the SCCR's successfully tabling a consensus proposed text. To that end, the SCCR held two special sessions, in January and June 2007, to "aim to agree and finalize, on a signal-based approach, the objectives, specific scope and object of protection." The emphasis on a signal-based approach was an attempt to narrow the focus of the treaty to signal theft and piracy in order to allay concerns that a new layer of intellectual property rights in the content of broadcasts would, in effect, extend protection beyond the expiration of copyrights for each broadcast transmission and keep or remove content from the public domain. At the second special session, it became apparent that the conclusion of a treaty by the end of 2007 would not be feasible, given the significant differences that remained among the positions of various parties. No further steps have been taken to organize a diplomatic conference, although the treaty remains on the agenda of the SCCR and was discussed during SCCR meetings in March and November 2008. The Revised Draft Basic Proposal (WIPO Doc. SCCR/15/2/Rev.) and the Non-Paper on the WIPO Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations (SCCR/S1/WWW[75352]), an unofficial paper prepared by the SCCR Chair in April 2007, provided the basis for negotiations at the second special session in June 2007, and apparently remain the current working text. The Revised Draft Basic Proposal is considered inadequate to support a successful diplomatic conference because it essentially incorporates every major alternative text for those articles where major differences remain among the WIPO parties. For example, there are two alternatives for Article 18, one providing that the term of protection shall be 50 years, the other, that the term be 20 years. The protections available under the Rome Convention have a term of 20 years, and the longer 50-year term proposed for the new treaty has been controversial. Furthermore, this text does not define a "signal," although the Chairman of the SCCR reportedly floated a proposed definition of "signal" in an earlier informal non-paper at the first special session in January 2007. Article 2 in the April 2007 Non-Paper does not define "signal" but does define "broadcast" in terms of signals. There appears to be uncertainty and disagreement among the negotiating parties as to precisely what a "signal-based" approach means for the narrowed focus of a new treaty. Consequently, some parties suggest that a "signal-based" approach, mandated by the WIPO General Assembly, may still encompass certain elements of exclusive rights including the right to prohibit certain uses of a broadcast, which remains a major point of contention. These two examples are indicative of the lack of consensus affecting most of the provisions of the Revised Draft Basic Proposal. At the November 2008 meeting of the SCCR, an Informal Paper was issued by the Chairman of the SCCR, but the SCCR did not make any formal decisions based on the paper. The paper sets forth and analyzes the range of positions on various issues that remain unresolved. It is intended to facilitate further discussion by examining the reasons behind some of the major differences among the negotiators and their stakeholders. For example, a number of WIPO member countries are parties to the 1961 Rome Convention; therefore, they view the new treaty as building on concepts in the Rome Convention which granted broadcasting organizations exclusive rights over rebroadcasting, fixation (recording of a broadcast in a medium such as optical disk), reproduction, and communication to the public. These rights are related to and are based on traditional concepts of intellectual property rights, that is, copyright in content which may be the subject of a broadcast. These WIPO members want the new treaty to provide for exclusive rights, which would be extended to new areas such as webcasting (broadcasts over the Internet), retransmission, protection of pre-broadcast signals, and technological devices to protect such exclusive rights. On the other hand, WIPO member countries that are not parties to the Rome Convention view the treaty as a free-standing endeavor that need not be based on the provision of exclusive rights. Some stakeholders are concerned that an exclusive rights-type of treaty would extend a new layer of intellectual property rights in content similar to copyright-type protections. They argue that this type of treaty would keep content out of the public domain and thus restrict the public's access to such content. The Chairman's informal paper discusses other issues, including the scope of post-fixation rights, the right of retransmission over the Internet, the term of protection, the protection of technological measures, limitations on and exceptions from the protections granted under the treaty (similar to existing exceptions to copyright for news reporting, education, and scientific research), definition of "signal-based" protection, and other secondary issues. Some of these are discussed below as points of contention. The paper concludes with two options for proceeding with negotiations. One option would be to make another attempt to conclude a treaty based on the Revised Draft Basic Proposal. The other option would be to conclude a treaty based on the Geneva Phonograms Convention of 1971 and the Brussels Satellite Convention. This would depart from the existing documents and proposals under consideration by the SCCR, but it would accomplish the goals of international protection for broadcast signals and prevention of piracy of signals. Protection at the national level could be accomplished via copyright laws, unfair competition laws, or administrative laws and sanctions. If neither of these options or other possible options can lead to a decision on a new treaty, the paper ends by recommending that the SCCR should expressly end current efforts to conclude a new treaty, remove it from its active agenda, and avoid spending further time, energy and resources. Such a decision could include a timetable for revisiting the matter later. Although further discussions occurred during the November 2008 SCCR meetings, no decisions were made, and the proposed treaty remains an active item on the SCCR agenda. Given the current lack of consensus, it may be useful to consider some of the major points of contention for the treaty as expressed by various stakeholders. The principles expressed in various stakeholder statements are fairly representative of common objections raised by treaty opponents and also of some of the concerns or positions expressed by various WIPO country-parties during negotiations. A joint statement distributed by 41 corporations, industry associations, and non-governmental organizations at the first special session of the SCCR advocated several guidelines for a treaty text, while not conceding their position that a treaty is not necessary at all. This statement is similar to earlier statements issued by many of the same stakeholders at the September 2006 meeting of the WIPO General Assembly and to positions expressed at U.S. stakeholder roundtables held jointly by the U.S. Copyright Office and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in September 2006, January 2007, and May 2007. The stakeholders issuing these statements at the SCCR meetings and the U.S. roundtables comprise a range of international and national organizations representing Internet service providers, computer technology companies, libraries and information professionals, content creators/owners, and consumer groups.