[dvd-discuss] WIPO Copyright Treaty Due Soon

[John Young <jya(at)pipeline.com>]

From an announcement by WIPO in Geneva, upon Gabon's 
aceding to the WIPO Copyright Treaty on December 6, 2001, 
the copyright treaty will enter into force on March 6, 2002:

  The WIPO treaties [on copyright and performance] also break new 
  ground by ensuring that rightholders can effectively use technology 
  to protect their rights and to license their works online. The 
  "anti-circumvention" provision addresses the problem of "hacking" 
  by requiring countries to provide adequate legal protection and 
  effective remedies against the circumvention of technological 
  measures, such as encryption. Such technologies are used
  by rightholders to protect their rights when their creations are
  disseminated on the Internet. The treaties also serve to safeguard the
  reliability and integrity of the online marketplace, by requiring
  countries to prohibit the deliberate alteration or deletion of
  electronic "rights management information": that is, information that
  identifies a work, its author, performer or owner, and the terms and
  conditions for its use.

Full announcement:

  http://cryptome.org/wtc120701.htm