1 TSB Using the Swiss Confederation's Web site: A concrete example Richard Hill 5 June 2003 Telecommunication Standardization Bureau International Telecommunication Union Workshop on challenges, perspectives and standardization issues in E-Government

2 TSB The 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 Governments site to see what had changed and when:

3 TSB The law changes 2/2 Sure enough, there had been a change in 2002: The change was to Article 12. I went and looked at Article 12 to find the source of the change:

4 TSB The LCin 1/3 The change came from the Law on Cinemas LCIN: So I went and looked at the legislative history for that law: html html

5 TSB The LCin 2/3 First I looked at what the government had asked for: But that said nothing about the copyright law. So I went and looked at the parliamentary debates: _gesch_ htm _gesch_ htm

6 TSB The LCin 3/3 It required a bit of reading to find the bit that interested me: But I found it, see page 536 at: 664/d_s_4609_35664_35668.htm?DisplayTextOid =35669

7 TSB Taking action 1/2 The change came a committee. So I looked at the people who were on the committee: Having read the parliamentary debates, I felt that the modification of the copyright law didnt really correspond to the goals of the Law on Cinemas and that some of the parliamentarians hadnt 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: nr-nationalrat/ra-nr-mitglieder.htm I looked up: son_498.htm

9 TSB More research 1/6 I wrote him an and he said hed 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:

10 TSB More research 2/6 Then I looked at possibly relevant international treaties: ml

11 TSB More research 3/6 And the government departments that were involved: schweiz.admin.ch/index_f.html I spoke to people in those departments and they gave me additional information.

12 TSB More 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:

13 TSB More 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: template/jurisdiction-recht.htm The one I was interested in is: bin//MapProcessorCGI?mapfile=navigate/ConvertDocFrameCGI.map &ds=navigate&d=doc_de_1998_BGE_124_III_321&lang=de&doctyp e=doc&maptype=doc&pa=1&bckhttp://clir.bger.ch/cgi- bin//MapProcessorCGI?mapfile=navigate/ConvertDocFrameCGI.map &ds=navigate&d=doc_de_1998_BGE_124_III_321&lang=de&doctyp e=doc&maptype=doc&pa=1&bck=

14 TSB More research 6/6 I also searched for decisions related to certain articles of the Constitution: ir/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 TSB Drafting the motion Then I looked for examples of parliamentary motions: 1.htm I drafted a text, sent to the member of parliament with whom Id been in touch, and he submitted it: %5Fgesch%5F htm

16 TSB The outcome The outcome isnt 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, : R.pdf And on 10 June: R.pdf