INTRODUCTION
During this situation of catastrophe, experiencing throughout the world as the pandemic has led the whole world into a new crisis, the audiovisual performers have a reason to rejoice and celebrate their works and years of toil.
On the 24th of June 2012, after 20 years of negotiation and hard work by performers around the world, the member States of the United Nation’s World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) met in Beijing and approved an international convention establishing new moral and economic rights for performers who work in film, TV and digital audiovisual media known as the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances (BTAP).
Article 26 of the WIPO Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Fixations provided that the treaty would come into force three months after the ratification or accession by a 30thMember State or an intergovernmental organization. With the ratification by the Republic of Indonesia on January 28, 2020, that requirement was finally achieved. The WIPO Beijing Treaty thus, entered into force and legally bound all of its contracting parties on April 28, 2020.WIPO member states in 2012 approved the Treaty at a Diplomatic Conference hosted by the Chinese Government in Beijing, from where the Treaty takes its name.
The WIPO Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances (BTAP) is a multilateral treaty acknowledging for the first time the intellectual property rights of performers with regard to their audiovisual performances. It is a landmark achievement and one that officially ends discrimination dating from the early 60’s and resultingin the sole protection of audio performances in most countries around the world.
Many audiovisual performers – television and film actors, musicians, dancers, choreographers and others – never reap great fortunes and could in fact use some support in ensuring the sustainability of their livelihoods.
ABOUT THE BEIJING TREATY
The Beijing Treaty provides and manages the intellectual property (IP) privileges of performers in audiovisual performances by strengthening five kinds of exclusive economic rights for the beneficiaries’ performances fixed in an audiovisual format: The rights of reproduction, distribution, rental, making available and broadcasting and communication to the public.
By joining the Treaty, its individuals consent to receive, as per their lawful frameworks, the measures important to guarantee the utilization of the Treaty. Specifically, each contracting party must guarantee that implementation strategies are accessible under their laws, permitting effective action against any act of infringement of rights covered by the Treaty. The action must include quick remedies to prevent and adjourn infringement.
It will energize nations around the globe to align their national intellectual property provisions with these new international standards. The more extensive the confirmation of the Beijing Treaty, the tighter the protection of audiovisual performances beyond national borders.
MAIN PROVISIONS OF THE BEIJING TREATY:
The Beijing Treaty delivers performers four kinds of economic rights for their performances fixed in audiovisual fixations: (i) the right of reproduction; (ii) the right of distribution; (iii) the right of rental; and (iv) the right of making available.
• The right of reproduction is the privilege to authorize direct or indirect reproduction of the performance fixed in an audiovisual fixation in any manner or form.
• The right of distribution is the privilege to authorize the making available to the public of the original and copies of the performance fixed in an audiovisual fixation through sale or other transfer of ownership.
• The right of rental is the privilege to authorize the commercial rental to the public of the original and copies of the performance fixed in an audiovisual fixation.
• The right of making available is the privilege to authorize the making accessible to the public, by wire or wireless means, of any performance fixed in an audiovisual fixation, in such a way that member of the public may access the fixed performance from a place and at a time individually chosen by them.
The Treaty additionally concedes performers moral rights, that is, the right to claim to be identified as the performer (except where such an omission would be dictated by the manner of the use of the performance); and the privilege to protest any distortion, mutilation or other modification that would be biased to the performer’s reputation, taking into account the nature of the audiovisual fixations.
BENEFITS OF THE BEIJING TREATY
Ratification and entry into force of the Beijing Treaty shows that the multilateral standard setting framework as embodied by WIPO can function well to provide important new protections for creators and artists.
1. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
The Treaty will add to protecting of the privileges of entertainers against the unapproved utilization of their exhibitions in varying media, for example, TV, film and video. In a period of the expanding predominance of varying media creations, audiovisual productions as well as of audiovisual images in music, digital market consumption has extended beyond open TV broadcasts to pay TV channels, DVDs and most recently the Internet, including the mobile environment. Protection of audiovisual performances will stretch out to all those expanding audiovisual markets. The Beijing Treaty will strengthen and where necessary help to consolidate local audiovisual industries as they join an international system of protection. Moreover, the audiovisual industry is labor-intensive, employing scores of performers, technicians, musicians and other creators. The Beijing Treaty will empower expanded investment, by empowering successful and very much authorized copyright and related rights enactment, which in turn will be helpful for the advancement of a balanced framework for international exchange and access to foreign markets.
2. IMPROVING THE STATUS OF AUDIOVISUAL PERFORMERS
By providing incentives and compensation in regard to the global utilization of their performances, the Beijing Treaty will strengthen the standing of performers in the audiovisual industry. Performers are both artists and cultural workers. The Beijing Treaty will add to raising the professional status of actors and other performers and improving their working conditions. The development of these representative organizations will facilitate an environment more conducive to social discourse between artists and producers, which will have the general effect of strengthening the cinematographic and audiovisual sectors.
3. PROTECTION OF CULTURE, FOLKLORE AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Apart from being an art form on its own, film is an excellent vehicle for other expressions of innovation and cultural identity. Audiovisual performances can bring the artistic works and music of a given culture near the hearts and psyches of the crowd in a very successful manner. This element of audiovisual performances as a bearer and multiplier of other creative expressions not only has a tremendous economic significance but is alsoincredibly pertinent to advancing social assorted variety.In this equivalent setting the Beijing Treaty contributes to the protection of traditional cultural expressions and national folklore, which has been the subject of examination in various WIPO fora, including the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC). As clearly stated in the Beijing Treaty, performers include those actors and singers who decipher an expression of folklore.
HISTORY BEHIND THE TREATY AND ITS CONCLUSION IN 2012 (BACKGROUND)
This settlement is the result of a long procedure, enveloping two recently botched chances. The main universal treaty to ensure the licensed innovation privileges of all exhibitions was the 1961 Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Associations.Whilst breaking new ground, it provided limited protection to performers and no moral rights. Moreover, one of its arrangements explicitly denied any economic right to audiovisual obsessions.1961 was in this way the beginning of a long standing discrimination between the intellectual property protection of audio and audiovisual recordings at an international level that was just repaired by the BTAP in 2012. Dealings for the treaty started around the time the 1996 when so called WIPO Internet agreements were concurred. These treaties, the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT), updated copyright insurance for the digital age,including rights of distribution and making available on the internet, and the safeguarding of technological protection measures. They secured musicians, singers and different entertainers, however not on-screen actors. Another Diplomatic Conference in 2000specifically to deal with audiovisual performances but failed.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
The Beijing Treaty outlinesplots worldwide measures perceiving the privilege of audiovisual performers to be compensatedreasonably for the utilization of their innovative commitments. It grants performers economic rights to improve their livelihoods, as well as moral rights, giving them the ability to better protect their images. This treaty sets a new milestone global IP standard for cinematographic rights at global level.
WIPO said the treaty’s impact is that it: “will strengthen the economic rights of film actors and other performers and could provide extra income from their work. It will conceive and empower performers to share proceeds with producers for revenues generated internationally by audiovisual productions. It also will grant performers moral rights to prevent lack of attribution or twisting of their performances.” Finally, it provides an international legal framework for the industry.
The International Intellectual Property Alliance, an umbrella group of the major US rights holder trade associations, said it welcomed the treaty conclusion “as a reaffirmation of the importance of establishing adequate international legal protections and effective remedies for creators and innovators in the online environment. “ IIPA commended WIPO and the member states “for their continued work on establishing international norms critical to creative activity, which in turn spurs economic and job growth, as well as cultural and social development worldwide.”
TURNING POINT IN THE HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT LAWS
The treaty will prove a turning point for the audiovisual performers in the following ways:
It will strengthen the position of performers by providing- A clearer International Framework for their protection.
Stronger Economic Rights and valuable extra income
Protection in the Digital Environment
Rights against unauthorized uses on Internet
Performers are protected for the very first time.
Beijing treaty will enable performers to interact better with the environment.
The treaty effectively brings at par the rights of actors and performers with those of musicians and recording artists under WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty which was concluded in 1996. It fills a large gap because only sound recordings were protected and today audiovisual recordings are protected as well. So musicians with their actor colleagues and other performers now enjoy protection of all their works.
The privileges of entertainers (performers) are recognized because their creative intervention is crucial to give life to, for example, motion pictures or musical, dramatic and choreographic works, and because they have a justifiable interest in the legitimate securing of their individual interpretations.
CONCLUSION
Even though India has a major say in many of the copyright oriented industries yet it is not signing major copyright treaties affecting them including the WIPO Internet Treaties and the Beijing treaty on audiovisual performances.
The intellectual property and innovations of creators should gain protection of law. This makes their creativity not only accessible to the world but also bring them the essential respect and privileges for which they are worthy of. With the growing role of International Copyright Laws,new dimensions in this field have been achieved and new platforms being opened for the achievers to showcase and demand their privileges. For that the essence of copyright laws is about creating a fair balance between the interest of right owners and those of the world which is more inclusive and welcoming.
By – Jahnvi Ahuja
Credits: Lex Jura Law Journal
