Following the eventful first day of SCCR 42, day 2 saw a slightly emptier conference hall pick up the SCCR 42 agenda. The broadcasting treaty was the agenda item of the day. Delegates seemed impatient to move on to this discussion after two years of delay and with a new text in front of them.

General opening remarks were thankfully conducted relatively quickly before moving to the new chair’s text as a way to try to break the decades’ long log-jam of a possible broadcasting treaty.

This being a hybrid SCCR, with some delegations joining remotely, a number of delegations reminded the SCCR that ‘real’ or ‘final’ negotiations would not be possible while a significant number of delegates were not present in the Conference Hall. There were also a range of reactions that suggested the road to a possible treaty might yet be long and winding.

The IPA delegation is now almost complete with members from Belgium, Brazil, India, Italy, Mexico, Nigeria, the UAE and UK already in Geneva – ready to explain the reality of the impact of the COVID pandemic in their markets to their national and group delegates as well as their national ambassadors. We await a couple more delegates tomorrow to register the full team.

The first side event of the week on Copyright Exceptions and Research was organized by the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP) of the American University Washington College of Law. The presenters displayed a green-yellow-red map of the world to advance their plan to introduce a cross-border copyright exception they hoped would no longer be an exception but quickly become the rule: this irony was not lost on the IPA team

The afternoon was mainly taken up by the eminent Finnish copyright expert Jukka Liedes walking through the details of the new text of the Broadcasting Treaty, meticulously and adroitly, before the day’s session was adjourned.

Tomorrow should see the beginning of discussion on exceptions and limitations and the  Proposal by the African Group for a Draft work Program on Exceptions and Limitations as well as a side event organized by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) on the role of copyright in the growth of national audiovisual sectors – A focus on Turkish film and TV production and global distribution. You can join remotely by registering here.