Last week's WIPO General Assembly is being rightly billed a major victory – the development agenda will continue with all issues on the table, while a diplomatic conference on a proposed Broadcasting Treaty has been made contingent on two prior meetings and the resolution of all outstanding issues (a marked departure from where things stood just a couple of weeks ago).

These developments – combined with the increased access and input from public interest groups into the WIPO process as well as the willingness of developing countries to assert positions that differ from the maximalist approach favoured by the U.S. and the WIPO secretariat – suggest that we may see a decreased emphasis on WIPO in the future.  As a consensus-based organization, WIPO appears to be stalemated.  I suspect that the member countries that have used WIPO as a forum for steadily increasing copyright protection are likely to increasingly turn their attention elsewhere.  The WTO is one such place (particularly for countries such as Russia and China) and bi-lateral trade treaties are the other.  This is particularly relevant in a Canadian context since the bi-lateral pressure from the U.S. on copyright is going to be far stronger than anything that even CRIA could muster.  The dangers associated with WIPO may be diminishing, but the fervour for increased copyright protection will no doubt continue.