WIPO

CRNR/DC/4 ORIGINAL: English DATE: August 30, 1996

14.01 Article 14 contains provisions on obligations with regard to rights management information.

14.02 According to paragraph (1) Contracting Parties shall make it unlawful for any person to remove or alter any electronic rights management information without authority, or to distribute, import for distribution or communicate to the public, without authority, copies of works from which such information has been removed or in which it has been altered. A requirement for proscription is that the person who performs these acts does so knowingly. The obligation of Contracting Parties covers rights management information in electronic form only.

14.03 Paragraph (2) identifies the information that is within the scope of this Article. The scope has been limited to information which identifies the work, the author of the work, the owner of any right in the work, and any numbers or codes that represent such information. The obligations of this provision cover such information only when it is attached to a copy of a work or appear in connection with the communication of a work to the public. Nothing precludes a broader field of application for provisions on rights management information in national legislation.

14.04 Contracting Parties may design the exact field of application of the provisions envisaged in this Article taking into consideration the need to avoid legislation that would impede lawful practices. Having regard to differences in legal traditions, Contracting Parties may, in their national legislation, also define the coverage and extent of the liability for violation of the prohibition enacted according to paragraph (1).

14.05 Contracting Parties may, when implementing the obligations established by this Article, specifically limit the scope of the provisions in their national law in such a way that technically non-feasible requirements are not imposed on broadcasting organizations and other users engaged in the duly authorized communication of works or retransmission of broadcasts.

14.06 It should be pointed out that the use of electronic rights management information is voluntary. The obligations of Contracting Parties concerning rights management information only apply in cases where such information has been given.

14.07 It should be observed that the wilful removal or alteration of rights management information in order to achieve financial gain is a matter which falls within the scope of the provisions of the penal codes in most countries. This may be taken into account when the obligations of the Contracting Parties are considered by the Diplomatic Conference.

14.08 Proposals on rights management information were presented for the February 1996 session of the Committees of Experts by Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and the United States of America.

(1) Contracting Parties shall make it unlawful for any person knowingly to perform any of the following acts:

(i) to remove or alter any electronic rights management information without authority;

(ii) to distribute, import for distribution or communicate to the public, without authority, copies of works from which electronic rights management information has been removed or altered without authority.

(2) As used in this Article, "rights management information" means information which identifies the work, the author of the work, the owner of any right in the work, and any numbers or codes that represent such information, when any of these items of information are attached to a copy of a work or appear in connection with the communication of a work to the public.