WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty

The WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (or WPPT) is an international treaty adopted in Geneva on 20 December 1996. It came into effect on 20 May 2002. The treaty deals with the rights of two kinds of beneficiaries, particularly in the digital environment: performers (actors, singers, musicians, etc.); and producers of phonograms (persons or legal entities that take the initiative and have the responsibility for the fixation of sounds).

As of August 2023, the treaty has 112 contracting parties. The Treaty is open to States members of World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and to the European Community. The treaty is administered by WIPO.

Content
WPPT was adopted with an objective to develop and maintain the protection of the rights of performers and producers of phonograms in a manner as effective and uniform as possible. This treaty would not disturb the existing obligations that Contracting Parties have to each other under the International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations done in Rome, 26 October 1961 (Rome Convention). Articles 18 and 19 of the WPPT provide similar obligations for performers and producers of phonograms to contracting states as provided under Articles 11 and 12 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT).

The Treaty deals with the rights of two kinds of beneficiaries, particularly in the digital environment: performers (actors, singers, musicians, etc.); and producers of phonograms (persons or legal entities that take the initiative and have the responsibility for the fixation of sounds).


 * As far as performers are concerned, the Treaty grants performers economic rights in their performances fixed in phonograms (not in audiovisual fixations, such as motion pictures): the right of reproduction; the right of distribution; the right of rental; and the right of making available.
 * As to unfixed (live) performances, the Treaty grants performers: the right of broadcasting (except in the case of rebroadcasting); the right of communication to the public (except where the performance is a broadcast performance); and the right of fixation.
 * The Treaty also grants performers moral rights (the right to claim to be identified as the performer and the right to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification that would be prejudicial to the performer's reputation).
 * As far as producers of phonograms are concerned, the Treaty grants them economic rights in their phonograms: the right of reproduction; the right of distribution; the right of rental; and the right of making available.

As to limitations and exceptions, Article 16 of the WPPT incorporates the so-called "three-step test" to determine limitations and exceptions, as provided for in Article 9(2) of the Berne Convention, extending its application to all rights. The accompanying Agreed Statement provides that such limitations and exceptions, as established in national law in compliance with the Berne Convention, may be extended to the digital environment.

The term of protection must be at least 50 years.

The Treaty also obliges Contracting Parties to provide for legal remedies against the circumvention of technological measures (eg, encryption) and against the removal or altering of information (such as identification of performer). It also obliges Contracting Parties to adopt legal measures to ensure the application of the Treaty.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is the United States's implementation of the treaty (see WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties Implementation Act).