International Conference on New Treaty to Improve Actors and other Performers’ Rights – Media Accreditation Now Open

Geneva, March 9, 2012
MA/2012/59

Journalists wishing to cover an international conference to improve the rights of actors and other performers, which will be convened by WIPO in Beijing from June 20 to 26, 2012 are invited to apply for media accreditation.  The Diplomatic Conference on the Protection of Audiovisual Performances, hosted by the Government of the People’s Republic of China, is expected to conclude a new international treaty on the rights of performers in the international exploitation of their audiovisual performances in the digital era.  

For many struggling film actors and other performers, including in developing countries, the treaty will strengthen their economic rights and provide potential extra income from their work. It will include – for the first time ever - a legal requirement on countries party to the new treaty to pay for use of foreign audiovisual performances and a presumption that some of that revenue will go to performers, the vast majority of whom now earn very little. It will also grant performers moral rights to prevent lack of attribution or distortion of their performance. 

Delegations representing WIPO’s 185 member states as well as a number of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are invited to participate in the conference. 

Negotiations leading up to the conference, held under the auspices of WIPO's Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, have resulted in a text that will be submitted to the Beijing meeting. Discussions at the diplomatic conference will be based on a "basic proposal" (all documents available at https://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/details.jsp?meeting_id=25602 ). 

In 2000, discussions on a treaty that would shore up the rights of performers in their audiovisual performances made significant progress, with provisional agreement rights on 19 of the 20 articles under negotiation. Negotiators at the time did not agree on whether or how a treaty on performers’ rights should deal with the transfer of rights from the performer to the producer, and suspended the diplomatic conference. Member states at the SCCR in June 2011, agreed compromise wording on the provision on the transfer of rights which made it sufficiently flexible to adapt to different national laws, and various approaches regarding the consolidation of rights vis-à-vis the film producers, thereby paving the way for the conclusion of a treaty. 

Journalists wishing to cover the conference are requested to submit an accreditation form , with the supporting documents by April 20, 2012.