The WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty 1996: Performers and Producers, Articles 1 to 17

In one line

The WPPT gives performers what the Rome Convention withheld, a moral right and exclusive economic rights, and gives producers of phonograms the on demand right.

In exam wording: the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, adopted at Geneva on 20 December 1996 and in force from 20 May 2002, confers on performers moral rights and exclusive rights of reproduction, distribution, rental and making available in respect of performances fixed in phonograms, together with the right to authorise the broadcasting and communication to the public and the fixation of unfixed performances, and confers on producers of phonograms exclusive rights of reproduction, distribution, rental and making available, with a right to a single equitable remuneration for broadcasting and communication to the public under Article 15.

Articles 1 to 4: the framework

Article 1(1): nothing derogates from existing obligations that contracting parties have to each other under the Rome Convention.

Article 1(2): protection under this Treaty shall leave intact and shall in no way affect the protection of copyright in literary and artistic works, and consequently no provision may be interpreted as prejudicing such protection. The same rule as Rome Article 1.

Article 1(3): the Treaty shall not have any connection with, nor shall it prejudice any rights and obligations under, any other treaty.

Article 2 defines the terms. Performers means actors, singers, musicians, dancers and other persons who act, sing, deliver, declaim, play in, interpret or otherwise perform literary or artistic works or expressions of folklore.

That reference to expressions of folklore is new and it matters for Module IV, because Rome did not have it and it is the first time an international copyright instrument recognised a performer of folklore.

Phonogram means the fixation of the sounds of a performance or of other sounds, or of a representation of sounds, other than in the form of a fixation incorporated in a cinematographic or other audiovisual work.

Fixation means the embodiment of sounds, or of the representations thereof, from which they can be perceived, reproduced or communicated through a device.

Producer of a phonogram means the person, or the legal entity, who or which takes the initiative and has the responsibility for the first fixation of the sounds.

Publication, broadcasting and communication to the public are also defined, broadcasting including transmission by satellite and encrypted signals where the means for decrypting are provided by or with the consent of the broadcasting organisation.

Article 3 identifies the beneficiaries: nationals of other contracting parties, applying the criteria of eligibility under the Rome Convention as if all contracting parties to this Treaty were Contracting States of Rome.

Article 4, national treatment: each contracting party shall accord to nationals of other contracting parties the treatment it accords to its own nationals with regard to the exclusive rights specifically granted in this Treaty and to the right to equitable remuneration in Article 15. Article 4(2) limits the obligation where a party has made a reservation under Article 15(3).