Brussels / Geneva, 19/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has set at one year the "reasonable time" conceded to the United States for bringing its copyright legislation into conformity with international law (see EUROPE of 20 June and 26 April 2000). This binding verdict, published early in the week, leaves Washington a few more months, until 27 July this year, for correcting the law ruled as "illegal" last summer.
Julio Lacarte-Muro, the arbiter entrusted with enacting on this issue, felt that the time proposed by the United States, which evoked the "material impossibility" of recasting its legislation in less than 15 to 17 months (before the end of the new session of the US Congress, on 31 December 2001), was not justified by the circumstances stated (complexity of the legislative procedure, timetable for the work of the Assembly, controversy surrounding the law in question, etc.). "There is no doubt that the United States Congress may act rapidly" given the margin of manoeuvre it has for the chronology and the management of the legislative procedure, said the arbiter. He did not, however, accept the 10-month time limit proposed by the Union, which considers this modification to be "relatively simple". "It is obvious", he said, "that the process comprises a certain number of laborious and complex stages".
In so doing, the arbiter has avoided having to give his position on the substance of the dissension between Washington and Brussels, referring to the Congress the question of knowing whether this law should be amended or whether it would be enough to make a simple administrative change. We recall that the provisions deemed illegal concern an exemption authorising the diffusion of music in public places with sound systems (shopping centres, large stores, bars, pubs, restaurants, hotel lobbies and other highly frequented places) without payment of the fees normally due by the owners, mainly under the agreement on intellectual property rights (ADPIC). Only the "home exception" granted to small shopkeepers who listen to music while working found grace in the eyes of the WTO.