The "World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty" (WCT) and the "WIPO Performers and Phonograms Treaty" (WPPT) shall come into force as of June 9, 2007 in China.  These two "Treaties" were specially formulated for the issue of copyright protection under the environment of Internet.

 

On December 29, 2006, the 25th Meeting of the 10th Session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, after deliberations, made a resolution on accession to the "World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty" and the "WIPO Performers and Phonograms Treaty". On March 6, 2007, the Chinese government officially deposited its instrument of accession to the WIPO.  Pursuant to the stipulations of these two "Treaties", the said Treaties shall come into force in the Signatory State three months after the date on which its accession has been notified by the Director General.  Starting from this day, whoever arbitrarily uses the works on the Internet without the permission of the networked author, performer and the producer of phonograms and videos shall undertake tort liability.  However, these two "Treaties" are not applicable to Hong Kong and Macao regions for the time being.

 

The person in charge of the National Copyright Administration stated that accession to these two "Treaties" will be conducive to enhancing China's cooperation with the international community in terms of intellectual property protection, sharing the successful experiences of the international community for copyright protection in the Internet area and, improving China's legal system on copyright and be conducive to raising the protection level of Internet copyright in China, promoting the rapid development of China's Internet industry and upgrading China's international image in terms of copyright protection.

 

At present, the legal standards of all the States for the protection of intellectual property more and more tend to international coordination and standardization.  And the globalization of the intellectual property law with international conventions as the lead is irresistible.  All the world's States have started or will continue to amend or improve its legal system for the protection of intellectual property under the framework of the trade related intellectual property agreement (TRIPS Agreement) and other new conventions of intellectual property, so as to jointly build the grand system of the 21st century for the protection of intellectual property.

 

It is learned that these two "Treaties" were adopted in Geneva by the WIPO at the diplomatic meeting concerning some issues on copyright and neighboring right in December 1996, effective as of 2002.  To date, nearly 60 States have ratified or acceded to these two "Treaties".  The purpose of the "WCT" is to more fully protect the interests of the copyright owner in the information technology and tele-communication technology areas, especially in the Internet area.  The purpose of the "WPPT" is to better protect the rights of the performer and the producer of phonograms and videos' in the digital areas, especially in the Internet area.

2007-06-14

2007-06-14