Audiovisual Performances

The protection of performers in audiovisual media has not yet been effectively established at international level. This lack of protection not only affects actors in different media such as film and television but also musicians in such situations as when rock performance is recorded in a DVD.

A WIPO Diplomatic Conference on the protection of audiovisual performances took place in Geneva in December 2000 but the Conference was, however, unable to adopt a Treaty. Since then, WIPO has engaged in an intensive activity of fact-finding and research, aimed at developing information material on the pending differences and improving the knowledge of the situation of performers at national level.

In this regard, WIPO has published a considerable number of Studies and Surveys. Moreover, since September 2006 WIPO has organized many national and regional seminars in Asia, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe and Africa. National and regional seminars have followed different formats depending on the interest expressed by Member States and the stakeholders involved. In preparing these events, the WIPO Secretariat has followed a flexible and balanced approach. The seminars achieved a promising, high degree of meaningful exchange of views and information among governments and stakeholders in three key areas, which correspond to three relations that are crucial for the activity of the performer, namely: the relation of the performer to her performance (subject and object of protection), the relation of the performer to other performers (organizations of performers) and the relation of the performer to other stakeholders and the public at large (rights over the performance and exercise thereof).