1

TSB

Using the Swiss Confederation's Web site:A concrete example

Richard Hill5 June 2003

Telecommunication Standardization Bureau

International Telecommunication Union

Workshop on challenges, perspectives and standardization

issues in E-Government

2

TSBThe law changes 1/2

In January 2003, my favorite English-language video club sent a letter announcing that they had to close, because they could no longer import videos from the US or the UK.They said the Swiss copyright law had changed.So I looked at the Swiss Federal Government’s site to see what had changed and when:

http://www.admin.ch/ch/index.fr.html

3

TSB

The law changes 2/2

Sure enough, there had been a change in 2002:

http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/rs/2/a231_1.html

The change was to Article 12.I went and looked at Article 12 to find the source of the change: http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/rs/231_1/a12.html

4

TSB

The LCin 1/3

The change came from the Law on Cinemas LCIN: http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/rs/c443_1.html

So I went and looked at the legislative history for that law: http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/gg/cr/2000/20001389.html

5

TSB

The LCin 2/3

First I looked at what the government had asked for: http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/ff/2000/5019.pdf But that said nothing about the copyright law. So I went and looked at the parliamentary debates: http://www.parlament.ch/afs/data/f/gesch/2000/f_gesch_20000078.htm

6

TSB

The LCin 3/3

It required a bit of reading to find the bit that interested me:http://www.parlament.ch/ab/frameset/f/index.htm

But I found it, see page 536 at:http://www.parlament.ch/ab/frameset/d/s/4609/35664/d_s_4609_35664_35668.htm?DisplayTextOid=35669

7

TSB

Taking action 1/2The change came a committee. So I looked at the people who were on the committee: http://www.parlament.ch/f/print/kom_5_18.htm

Having read the parliamentary debates, I felt that the modification of the copyright law didn’t really correspond to the goals of the Law on Cinemas and that some of the parliamentarians hadn’t understood what they had approved.

8

TSB

Taking action 2/2

So I looked up one of the members of parliament. By using the list at:http://www.parlament.ch/f/homepage/ra-raete/ra-nr-nationalrat/ra-nr-mitglieder.htm I looked up:http://www.parlament.ch/afs/data/d/person/d_person_498.htm

9

TSB

More research 1/6I wrote him an E-Mail and he said he’d be willing to move to have the law changed, if I wrote up the motion for him.So I did some more research.I looked at the laws on parliamentary procedures for motions:

http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/rs/17.html#171

http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/rs/171_11/a22.html

10

TSB

More research 2/6Then I looked at possibly relevant international treaties: http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/rs/0.63.html#0.632.2

http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/rs/0_632_20/app52.html

http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/rs/c0_231_15.html

11

TSBMore research 3/6

And the government departments that were involved:http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/autorita.html#2 http://www.kultur-schweiz.admin.ch/index_f.html

http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/autorita.html#3 http://www.ige.ch/

I spoke to people in those departments and they gave me additional information.

12

TSBMore research 4/6

On the site of the Swiss Intellectual Property Office, I found something interesting: a consultation paper regarding possible changes to the copyright law in light of recent international treaties:http://www.ige.ch/F/jurinfo/j103.htm

http://www.ige.ch/F/jurinfo/pdf/ap_lda.pdf http://www.ige.ch/D/jurinfo/pdf/erlaeuterungen_urg.pdf

13

TSBMore research 5/6

The consultation paper had a reference to a key Swiss Supreme Court decision: ATF 124 III 321.Recent decisions are available online:http://www.bger.ch/fr/index/jurisdiction/jurisdiction-inherit-template/jurisdiction-recht.htm

http://clir.bger.ch/index/index.html

The one I was interested in is:http://clir.bger.ch/cgi-bin//MapProcessorCGI?mapfile=navigate/ConvertDocFrameCGI.map&ds=navigate&d=doc_de_1998_BGE_124_III_321&lang=de&doctype=doc&maptype=doc&pa=1&bck=

14

TSBMore research 6/6

I also searched for decisions related to certain articles of the Constitution:http://clir.bger.ch/register/registerg/0_1.dir/0_0.dir/0.html I found two of interest.I also spoke to the owners of my video club and got information and documents from them.

15

TSBDrafting the motion

Then I looked for examples of parliamentary motions:http://www.parlament.ch/afs/forms/f/f_urh_form1.htm I drafted a text, sent to the member of parliament with whom I’d been in touch, and he submitted it:http://www.parlament.ch/afs/data/f/gesch/2003/f%5Fgesch%5F20033061.htm

16

TSBThe outcomeThe outcome isn’t known yet. Many others have complained about this matter and there is considerable support in parliament to modify the copyright law, so as to eliminate the provisions that are bothering the video clubs.The matter was discussed on 4 June, in the context of changes to the Loi sur le Cartels, 01.071:http://www.parlament.ch/Poly/Programme/Sessionsprogramm_NR.pdf

And on 10 June:http://www.parlament.ch/Poly/Programme/

Sessionsprogramm_SR.pdf