WIPO seeks to reopen talks on audio-visual performances treaty

[Pranesh Prakash]

From IP Watch (William New): http://tr.im/yDFl

The World Intellectual Property Organization this week may have
witnessed the beginnings of a resumption of high-level negotiations on
an international treaty on the protection of audiovisual performances.

[Informal open-ended consultations][1] on protection of audiovisual
performances were held in the context of a [7-9 September WIPO
meeting][2] on the half-century-old International Convention for the
Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting
Organizations, known as the Rome Convention of 1961.

 [1]: http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/details.jsp?meeting_id=19243
 [2]: http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/details.jsp?meeting_id=17584

A high-level negotiation – known as a diplomatic conference – held in
the year 2000 collapsed in disagreement and has not been able to be
restarted by proponents. Until now.

“Everyone seems to be keen to start discussing negotiations,” a
European private-sector participant said after the consultation.
Another participant said, “There was a general attitude of encouraging
[talks], positive noises.”

A third was more cautious, saying only that some participants “saw a
glimmer and are trying to make fire.”

And a WIPO official concluded, “There’s a scale of enthusiasm. [But]
nobody spoke against agreement.”

Several sources said producers who in the past had been opposed to
talks on the transfer of rights section of the draft treaty signalled
some flexibility this time. It appears according to sources that there
was a suggestion that where in the past US producers have insisted the
treaty follow the US approach on transfer of rights, they might now
consider a treaty that preserves national approaches like that of the
US but does not limit it to that.

The next step for audiovisual is unclear but the subject falls under
the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) and
it is expected the subject will be addressed by the WIPO General
Assemblies, to be held from 22 September to 1 October. The next SCCR
meeting is scheduled for 14-18 December, and the audiovisual treaty is
on the agenda.

According to the European source, a new diplomatic conference, should
one be held, could pick up with the same text from 2000 and focus only
on the sticky issue of transfer of rights. In the 2000 text, four
alternatives were offered on this, as described in the background
document for this week’s informal, open-ended consultations.

These four were based on: a rebuttable presumption of transfer of
rights of audiovisual performers; the model of the [Berne Convention
for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works][3], Article 14bis
(2), which established in favour of the producer an entitlement to
exercise the rights of performers; principles of private international
law, which apply the law of the country most closely connected to the
subject matter; and finally, an option of no provision at all relating
to transfer.

 [3]: http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/trtdocs_wo001.html

According to another participant, one suggestion was to create a
stakeholder platform like has been done in the context of discussions
on a WIPO treaty for the visually impaired.

A representative for the producers could not be reached by presstime.

Rome Convention

The draft report for the Rome Convention meeting on Monday and
Wednesday (with the audiovisual consultation between) will be
available here shortly. The draft report was adopted with only minor
technical changes, an official said.

Since the Rome Convention took effect in 1961, WIPO, along with the
International Labour Organization and the UN Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have held regular meetings on it.
The last meeting was at UNESCO in Paris in 2005. In recent years it
has become apparent that there may not be significant changes to the
convention (as separate, new treaties have been negotiated at WIPO and
elsewhere to address new needs), making it less necessary to hold the
meeting, sources said. It was agreed this week again to suspend the
mandated biennial meeting of the Rome Convention parties, and that the
next meeting would be within a year of any “decisive new development.”

On the WIPO treaty on broadcasters rights, which saw a failed
diplomatic conference in 2007, the secretariat is commissioning a
study on the socioeconomic dimension of the unauthorised use of
signals, expected to be available for discussion in the following SCCR
meeting in 2010, according to the draft Rome Convention report.

On the future of the Rome Convention, a document was drafted for the
meeting by the three secretariats that described work done in recent
years, mainly in WIPO, but offered little in the way of substantive
proposals for changes to the convention.

--
Pranesh Prakash
Programme Manager
Centre for Internet and Society
W: http://cis-india.org | T: [phone]
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