WIPO to draft international treaty on the protection of audiovisual works

Last week, the General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) decided to convene a diplomatic conference in 2012. The aim of the conference will be to agree on an international treaty to protect artists’ rights.

WIPO is the UN organization for policy and legislation on intellectual property. In 2000,  the organization began negotiations with several countries to establish a treaty on artists’ rights with regard to audiovisual works. At the time, negotiations broke down because parties could not agree on how the treaty should deal with acquisition of artists’ rights by producers. So, the talks were postponed. During the conference in 2012, the countries will continue negotiations.

Francis Gurry, Director General of WIPO, reported that an international treaty is important for artists. Some countries have national legislation on artists’ rights, but international law is still inadequate with regard to this issue, according to WIPO. Artists have no control over the use of their performances abroad, says Gurry. Moreover, international law will provide a clear basis to safeguard unauthorized use of performances of artists in films and videos and digital networks.

In Europe, protection of audiovisual works is an important issue at the moment. The EU is working on a Green Paper on audiovisual works, the consultation closes November 18. The Green Paper focuses on the remuneration of authors and performers for the online use of their works and covers some specific uses of audiovisual works. Furthermore, the European Council of Ministers recently adopted an amendment to Directive 2006/116/EC that extends the term of protection of the copyright related rights to sound recordings from 50 years to 70 years.

The WIPO conference will be held in Geneva next year.

Read more about WIPO on FutureofCopyright.com:

• WIPO releases recent IP statistics
• WIPO announces music rights registry project for Africa
• World Intellectual Property Day
• WIPO Director General addresses future of copyright

Reference: WIPO

By: Karen Groen