[FYI] WIPO PR/2001/300 "Copyright Treaty"

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

http://www.wipo.org/pressroom/en/releases/2001/p300.htm

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Press Release PR/2001/300  

Geneva, December 6, 2001  

30TH ACCESSION TO KEY COPYRIGHT TREATY PAVES WAY FOR ENTRY INTO FORCE 

Gabon's accession on December 6, 2001 to the WIPO Copyright Treaty 
(WCT) paves the way for entry into force of this key treaty that will 
bring copyright law in line with the digital age, a move welcomed by 
the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization 
(WIPO), Dr. Kamil Idris. This accession means that the WCT will enter 
into force in three months time, on March 6, 2002. The WIPO 
Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT) is also expected to enter 
into force in the near future when 30 countries have become party to 
it (28 to date). By safeguarding the interests of creators in 
cyberspace, the WCT opens new horizons for composers, artists, 
writers and others to use the Internet with confidence to create, 
distribute and control the use of their works within the digital 
environment.  

"This is an important day in the history of copyright, making it 
better equipped to meet the technological challenges of cyberspace" 
said Dr. Idris, noting that this will provide a platform for creators 
to further exploit the Internet with confidence. "Together, these 
treaties represent a milestone in modernizing the international law 
of copyright and neighboring rights, ushering it into the digital 
age," said Dr. Idris.  

The Director General emphasized the importance of the new norms 
provided for in the WCT and the WPPT which, he said, are vital for 
the further development of the Internet, electronic commerce and 
thereby the culture and information industries. He stressed that for 
the treaties to be truly effective in the borderless world of 
cyberspace, they must become widely adopted by countries in all 
regions of the world. "While we have reached the key number of 30 
countries required for entry into force, I urge all other countries 
to follow suit and to incorporate the provisions of the WCT and WPPT 
into their national legislation. This will create the conditions 
necessary for the broad-based and legitimate distribution of creative 
works and recordings on the Internet," he said. These two treaties 
will help ensure that artists, composers, writers, musicians and 
others involved in the creative process are protected from Internet 
piracy, Dr. Idris noted.  

Background  

Copyright law provides protection for literary and artistic works, 
giving authors the ability to control the exploitation of their 
works. The law of related rights provides similar protection for the 
creative contributions of those involved in presenting works to the 
public, such as performers, phonogram producers and broadcasters. 
These rights are provided by national laws in individual countries. 
International treaties serve to forge links among different national 
laws, ensuring that creators are also protected in another country 
than their own. The treaties do not overrule national law, but 
require the countries that join them to grant some specified minimum 
rights, and to do so on a nondiscriminatory basis.  

Adopted in 1996, the WCT and WPPT update and improve the 
international protection which was established prior to the 
development and widespread use of personal computers and the 
Internet. The WCT introduces new and far-reaching norms to protect 
the rights of authors within the digital environment. It protects 
literary and artistic works, a broad category that includes books, 
computer programs, music, art, and movies. It updates and supplements 
the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic 
Works, the major international copyright treaty in the world today 
which was originally adopted in 1886, and most recently revised in 
1971.  

The WPPT will similarly safeguard the interests of producers of 
phonograms or sound recordings as well as of the performers whose 
performances are fixed in phonograms. It updates and supplements the 
major related rights treaty, the Rome Convention for the Protection 
of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations 
(adopted in 1961). In this way, the WCT and WPPT provide responses to 
the challenges of the new digital technologies. It is for this reason 
that they have come to be known as the "Internet treaties."  

Both treaties require countries to provide a basic framework of 
rights, allowing creators to control and/or be compensated for the 
various ways in which their creations are used and enjoyed by others. 
The treaties ensure that rightholders will continue to be adequately 
and effectively protected when their works are disseminated over the 
Internet. They do so, first, by clarifying that the traditional right 
of reproduction continues to apply in the digital environment, 
including to storage of material in digital form in an electronic 
medium; and by confirming the rightholders' right to control the 
making available of their creations on demand to individual members 
of the public. In order to achieve a balance of interests, the 
treaties also make clear that countries have flexibility in 
establishing exceptions or limitations to rights in the digital 
environment, and may either extend existing exceptions and 
limitations or adopt new ones, as appropriate in the circumstances.  

The treaties also break new ground by ensuring that rightholders can 
effectively use technology to protect their rights and to license 
their works online. The "anti-circumvention" provision addresses the 
problem of "hacking" by requiring countries to provide adequate legal 
protection and effective remedies against the circumvention of 
technological measures, such as encryption. Such technologies are 
used by rightholders to protect their rights when their creations are 
disseminated on the Internet. The treaties also serve to safeguard 
the reliability and integrity of the online marketplace, by requiring 
countries to prohibit the deliberate alteration or deletion of 
electronic "rights management information": that is, information that 
identifies a work, its author, performer or owner, and the terms and 
conditions for its use.  

Both treaties also contain provisions on rights of distribution and 
rental, rights to be remunerated for certain forms of broadcasting or 
communication to the public, and an obligation for countries to 
provide adequate and effective enforcement measures.  

For further information, please contact the Media Relations & Public 
Affairs Section at WIPO: Tel: +4122-3388161/3389547; Email: 
publicinf@wipo.int; Fax: +4122-3388810.  

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