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[FYI] WIPO PR/2001/300 "Copyright Treaty"
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- Subject: [FYI] WIPO PR/2001/300 "Copyright Treaty"
- From: "Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>
- Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 17:38:05 +0100
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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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