India to oppose encryption on digital material at WIPO summit

India and other developing countries are set to block the attempts of the developed nations to restrict access to digital material in a bid to check violation of copyright.  

At the 18th session of the Standing Committee on Copyrights, to be held by World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva later this month, these countries will pitch for giving exceptions to certain professionals in accessing the data from the Internet and digital world.  

"We are saying that there should be free access to the digital material for certain professionals. The blocking of access to digital material by having encryption should not be uniform for everybody," G R Raghvendra, Registrar of Copyrights, told PTI here.  

He said that a high-level delegation will represent India's stand on the issue at the five-day meet starting from May 25 in Geneva.  

The developed countries are of the view that free access to digital material amounts to violation copyrights. 

For any use of the digital material, the authors should get the royalty, they say. There is a move to have encryption on digital material, which will prevent free access to literature or any other digital material available on the Internet.

The developing countries are arguing that access should be allowed for certain purposes like research, education, judicial use, legislative use and government use.  

The WIPO summit will also discuss methods for signal protection for broadcasting organisations, Raghvendra said.  

"Broadcaster invest huge money to get the signal rights for certain events, including sporting competitions. But the theft of signal is causing huge loss to them," he said.  

This is mostly happening in European and African countries, he added.  The summit will also discuss the issue of audio-visual performance rights. Under this rights, no broadcaster can prepare CD, DVD or broadcast any programme without the consent of the performer. 

There are differences between countries on the issue, he said.