1996 WIPO Treaties (WCT and WPPT)

The WIPO treaties of 1996 are the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT), adopted in Geneva in December 1996 and in force since 2002. Often called the internet treaties, they adapt the Berne Convention and the Rome Convention to the digital environment by enshrining the right of on-demand making available and by requiring legal protection for technological measures. The European Union and its Member States are parties to them.

The Copyright Treaty

The WCT is a special agreement within the meaning of the Berne Convention, to whose substantive provisions it refers. It specifies that computer programs are protected as literary works and that databases are protected in respect of their original structure. It enshrines a right of distribution, a right of rental for certain categories of works and a general right of communication to the public including the making available to the public of works in such a way that members of the public may access them from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, which covers on-demand online dissemination. It recalls that protection extends to expressions and not to ideas, procedures or methods of operation, and it extends the three-step test to all rights.

The Performances and Phonograms Treaty

The WPPT grants the performer a moral right of attribution and integrity over his or her aural performances, together with exclusive rights of reproduction, distribution, rental and making available of performances fixed in phonograms. The phonogram producer receives the same economic rights. Both categories benefit from a right to equitable remuneration for the broadcasting and communication to the public of phonograms published for commercial purposes, and from a minimum term of fifty years. Audiovisual performances, excluded from the WPPT, were later covered by the Beijing Treaty of 2012.

Technological measures and rights management information

The most debated contribution of the two treaties is the obligation on States to provide adequate legal protection and effective remedies against the circumvention of technological protection measures implemented by rightholders, as well as against the removal or alteration of rights management information. These provisions were transposed into EU law by Directive 2001/29/EC, and into French law by the Act of 1 August 2006, which created the corresponding civil and criminal sanctions and entrusted an administrative authority, today ARCOM, with regulating interoperability and safeguarding exceptions.

Key points

The WIPO treaties of 1996 adapt copyright and related rights to the internet by enshrining the right of on-demand making available, the protection of software and databases, the moral rights of performers and the legal protection of technological measures. Their content is integrated into EU law by Directive 2001/29/EC. In practice, they constitute the minimum floor that may be relied upon in any contracting State for online exploitation, which should be checked before taking action in a third State.

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This glossary entry is general in scope and does not constitute legal advice.

Dhenne Avocats is a patent litigation firm. Matters outside that field, such as trade marks, designs, copyright and IT contracts, are handled by practitioners the firm works with regularly, and by the firm itself when they arise in a patent dispute.

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