W.r.t. adding mandatory exceptions to WIPO copyright treaty (e.g., compulsory licensing to content providers for the blind):
The uniform approach within this global framework has been to set minimum standards of copyright protection, subject to certain exceptions or limitations which are permissible, but not mandatory. ... The draft treaty would turn this long-standing principle on its head, demanding that signatories limit copyright protection to an extent not even permissible under the existing treaties... Link.Yet when it comes to well established legal principles in the US that: (1) do not fall within the realm of a treaty; (2) have created new markets and technologies; and (3) are being considered in other countries which would produce a more "uniform approach"...
In the US, laws and court cases provide Americans with the freedom to "format shift" their music from CDs to a computer to an iPod, and the freedom to "time shift" video has allowed digital video recorders to flourish. But when other countries try to encode similar copyright exceptions into law, the US government frowns on the practice, saying it "sends the wrong message." Link.
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