The WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (or WPPT) is an international

treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between sovereign states and/or international organizations that is governed by international law. A treaty may also be known as an international agreement, protocol, covenant, convention ...

adopted in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

on 20 December 1996. It came into effect on 20 May 2002. The treaty deals with the rights of two kinds of beneficiaries, particularly in the

digital environment A digital environment is an integrated communications environment where digital devices communicate and manage the content and activities within it. The concept is based on digital electronics systems which are integrated and implemented for a glo ...

: performers (actors, singers, musicians, etc.); and producers of phonograms (persons or legal entities that take the initiative and have the responsibility for the fixation of sounds). As of August 2023, the treaty has 112 contracting parties. The Treaty is open to States members of

World Intellectual Property Organization The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO; (OMPI)) is one of the 15 specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN). Pursuant to the 1967 Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO was created to pr ...

(WIPO) and to the European Community. The treaty is administered by WIPO.

Content

WPPT was adopted with an objective to develop and maintain the protection of the

rights Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...

of performers and producers of phonograms in a manner as effective and uniform as possible. This treaty would not disturb the existing obligations that Contracting Parties have to each other under the International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations done in Rome, 26 October 1961 (Rome Convention). Articles 18 and 19 of the WPPT provide similar obligations for performers and producers of phonograms to contracting states as provided under Articles 11 and 12 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT). The Treaty deals with the rights of two kinds of beneficiaries, particularly in the digital environment: performers (

actors An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

, singers,

musicians A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

, etc.); and producers of phonograms (persons or legal entities that take the initiative and have the responsibility for the fixation of sounds). Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license. * As far as performers are concerned, the Treaty grants performers economic rights in their performances fixed in phonograms (not in audiovisual fixations, such as motion pictures): the right of reproduction; the right of distribution; the right of rental; and the right of making available. * As to unfixed (live) performances, the Treaty grants performers: the right of broadcasting (except in the case of rebroadcasting); the right of communication to the public (except where the performance is a broadcast performance); and the right of fixation. * The Treaty also grants performers

moral rights Moral rights are rights of creators of copyrighted works generally recognized in civil law jurisdictions and, to a lesser extent, in some common law jurisdictions. The moral rights include the right of attribution, the right to have a work p ...

(the right to claim to be identified as the performer and the right to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification that would be prejudicial to the performer's reputation). * As far as producers of phonograms are concerned, the Treaty grants them

economic rights Economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR) are socio-economic human rights, such as the right to education, right to housing, right to an adequate standard of living, right to health, victims' rights and the right to science and culture. Econo ...

in their phonograms: the right of reproduction; the right of distribution; the right of rental; and the right of making available. As to limitations and exceptions, Article 16 of the WPPT incorporates the so-called " three-step test" to determine limitations and exceptions, as provided for in Article 9(2) of the Berne Convention, extending its application to all rights. The accompanying Agreed Statement provides that such limitations and exceptions, as established in national law in compliance with the Berne Convention, may be extended to the digital environment. The term of protection must be at least 50 years. The Treaty also obliges Contracting Parties to provide for legal remedies against the circumvention of technological measures (eg,

encryption In Cryptography law, cryptography, encryption (more specifically, Code, encoding) is the process of transforming information in a way that, ideally, only authorized parties can decode. This process converts the original representation of the inf ...

) and against the removal or altering of information (such as identification of performer). It also obliges Contracting Parties to adopt legal measures to ensure the application of the Treaty. The

Digital Millennium Copyright Act The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or ...

is the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

's implementation of the treaty (see

WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties Implementation Act The WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties Implementation Act, is a part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a 1998 U.S. law. It has two major portions, Section 102, which implements the requirements of the WIPO Copyr ...

References

External links

* The full text of th
WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty
in the WIPO Lex database — official website of

WIPO The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO; (OMPI)) is one of the 15 specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN). Pursuant to the 1967 Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO was created to pr ...

.
INTRODUCTION TO THE WIPO PERFORMANCES AND PHONOGRAMS TREATY (WPPT)
{{Intellectual property laws of the European Union Copyright treaties Performances and Phonograms Treaty Treaties concluded in 1996 Treaties entered into force in 2002 Treaties of Albania Treaties of Argentina Treaties of Armenia Treaties of Australia Treaties of Austria Treaties of Azerbaijan Treaties of Bahrain Treaties of Belgium Treaties of Benin Treaties of Bosnia and Herzegovina Treaties of Botswana Treaties of Bulgaria Treaties of Burkina Faso Treaties of Canada Treaties of Chile Treaties of the People's Republic of China Treaties of Colombia Treaties of Costa Rica Treaties of Croatia Treaties of Cyprus Treaties of the Czech Republic Treaties of Denmark Treaties of the Dominican Republic Treaties of Ecuador Treaties of El Salvador Treaties of Estonia Treaties entered into by the European Union Treaties of Finland Treaties of France Treaties of Gabon Treaties of Georgia (country) Treaties of Germany Treaties of Greece Treaties of Guatemala Treaties of Guinea Treaties of Honduras Treaties extended to Hong Kong Treaties of Hungary Treaties of Indonesia Treaties of Italy Treaties of Jamaica Treaties of Japan Treaties of Jordan Treaties of Kazakhstan Treaties of South Korea Treaties of Kyrgyzstan Treaties of Latvia Treaties of Liechtenstein Treaties of Lithuania Treaties of Luxembourg Treaties of North Macedonia Treaties of Madagascar Treaties of Malaysia Treaties of Mali Treaties of Malta Treaties of Mexico Treaties of Moldova Treaties of Mongolia Treaties of Montenegro Treaties of Morocco Treaties of the Netherlands Treaties of Nicaragua Treaties of Oman Treaties of Panama Treaties of Paraguay Treaties of Peru Treaties of the Philippines Treaties of Poland Treaties of Portugal Treaties of Qatar Treaties of Romania Treaties of Russia Treaties of Saint Lucia Treaties of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Treaties of Senegal Treaties of Serbia and Montenegro Treaties of Singapore Treaties of Slovakia Treaties of Slovenia Treaties of Spain Treaties of Sweden Treaties of Switzerland Treaties of Tajikistan Treaties of Togo Treaties of Trinidad and Tobago Treaties of Turkey Treaties of Ukraine Treaties of the United Arab Emirates Treaties of the United Kingdom Treaties of the United States Treaties of Uruguay 1996 in Switzerland Treaties extended to Greenland Treaties extended to the Faroe Islands

Content

See also

References

External links