Beijing Treaty: A Silver Lining To Audiovisual Performers

• Published date: 05 August 2021
• Subject Matter: Intellectual Property, Media, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment, Copyright, Broadcasting: Film, TV & Radio
• Law Firm: Khurana and Khurana
• Author: Khurana And Khurana

Introduction

The Audiovisual industry is a sunrise sector for the economy and making significant strides. It is a multi-billionaire industry having the compelling power to jump-start the underdeveloped economy. Nashville was once a struggling city of the USA, where just like Sub-Saharan Africa policymakers find the silver lining to revamp its economy through industrial development based on access to raw materials and government-funded public works project. These expectations were never realized, nevertheless, Nashville found success from its creative industries. The Nashville case study serves as an encouraging example of how creative industries can make much from the little. However, it is not possible without a reliable copyright system. Copyright is possibly one of the best-accepted strategies to invigorate the audiovisual industry. Hence, copyright's role cannot be underestimated.

The Copyright Law renders protection to the artists, authors, producers, performers of musical work excluding the audiovisual performers. While actors are the heart of the audiovisual industry, they are bereaved from copyright protection. The question regarding the audiovisual performer's rights was raised many times but was excluded every time, therefore, to redress this issue Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performance, 2012 was embraced by the Diplomatic Conference on 24^th June 2012 and entered into on 28^th April 2020.

Background

The Beijing treaty is a denouement of a prolonged process of considering the two missed opportunities. The Rome Convention for the Protection of the Performers, Producers of the Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations, 1961 ( also known as Rome Convention, 1961) discussed for the first time the protection of the rights of the performers in phonograms and audiovisual. The Rome Convention provides limited rights to the audiovisual performers and no moral rights. The exclusion of the audiovisual performers was mainly due to the influence of the US Film industry. Art. 19 of the Rome Convention 1961 stipulates that once the performers in the film have agreed to incorporate their performance in visual or audiovisual fixation, their rights do not apply.

In the 1990s the issue of audiovisual performers' rights was again discussed in a treaty concerning the rights of the performer of the phonogram and audiovisual works. However, the diplomatic conference of 1996 could not reach an agreement for the rights concerning audiovisual performers and ends up...