Danger Will Robinson Danger: Proposal for Treaty on Webcasting

This comes via Boing Boing and it scared me when I read it:
Subject: Request for Formal Public Comment on Proposal for Treaty on Webcasting
I quote:
"CPTech renews its request that the USPTO or the Library of Congress (LOC) invite formal public comment on the proposal to create a new International Treaty obligation establishing a novel intellectual property regime for webcasting, through the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The treaty language proposed for a "webcasting"right would create a new layer of property rights, lasting at least 50 years, for materials that are transmitted by web servers over the Internet and other networks. Unlike copyright, the new webcaster right is not based upon a creative contribution. Any material, including material in the public domain, or licensed for public dissemination under a creative commons type license, would be burdened with this new layer of rights, which accompany any "public transmission" of any combination or representations of sounds and or images."

The net as we know it would be the stuff of fading memory and mythology.