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Using the Swiss Confederation's Web site:
A concrete example
Richard Hill
5 June 2003
Workshop on challenges,
perspectives and standardization
issues in E-Government
Telecommunication Standardization Bureau
International Telecommunication Union
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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 Government’s
site to see what had changed and when:
http://www.admin.ch/ch/index.fr.html
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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
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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
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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
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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/4609/35
664/d_s_4609_35664_35668.htm?DisplayTextOi
d=35669
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Taking action 1/2
The 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.
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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/ranr-nationalrat/ra-nr-mitglieder.htm
I looked up:
http://www.parlament.ch/afs/data/d/person/d_per
son_498.htm
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More research 1/6
I 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
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More research 2/6
Then 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.ht
ml
http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/rs/c0_231_15.html
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More research 3/6
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And the government departments that were
involved:
http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/autorita.html#2
http://www.kulturschweiz.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.
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More research 4/6
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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
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More research 5/6
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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-inherittemplate/jurisdiction-recht.htm
http://clir.bger.ch/index/index.html
The one I was interested in is:
http://clir.bger.ch/cgibin//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=
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More research 6/6
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I also searched for decisions related to certain
articles of the Constitution:
http://clir.bger.ch/register/registerg/0_1.dir/0_0.d
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.
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Drafting the motion
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Then I looked for examples of parliamentary
motions:
http://www.parlament.ch/afs/forms/f/f_urh_form
1.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
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The outcome
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The 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_N
R.pdf
And on 10 June:
http://www.parlament.ch/Poly/Programme/Sessionsprogramm_S
R.pdf
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