A treaty that brings world copyright law into the digital age by protecting musicians on the Internet will take effect May 20, the UN said yesterday.
Kamal Idris, director-general of the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization, said the treaty would "offer more comprehensive protection for creators and creative enterprises in the digital environment."
The treaty is the first global accord to protect specifically the rights of recording artists and producers.
It is one of two agreements negotiated by 160 nations six years ago to protect against piracy on the Internet. Having received the necessary ratifications from 30 countries, it will to come into force in three months, a WIPO spokeswoman said.
The second treaty, which mirrors the other and protects authors on the Internet, crossed the 30-country threshold in December and comes into force March 6.
Both accords will ``help to boost the future development of the Internet, electronic commerce and the culture and information industries because content producers and creators will be more confident that their interests are better guarded,'' said Idris.
Negotiators said the treaties were essential in an age in which digital copies of music can be made almost instantaneously anywhere by computer.
The US is among the countries that have ratified both copyright treaties but the 15 EU members are still on the outside because they have a provision that all must ratify together, officials said. The 30th country ratifying the music copyright treaty was Honduras.
Idris said that the treaties must become widely incorporated into national law by countries in all regions of the world if they are to be effective.
"This will create the conditions necessary for the broad-based and legitimate distribution of creative works and recordings on the Internet," he said.
Copyright gives authors the ability to control the exploitation of their literary works. The so-called law of "related rights" provides similar protection for performers, producers and broadcasters.
The treaties forge links among different national laws, ensuring that creators are also protected in countries other than their own, WIPO officials said.
The treaties require ratifying countries to grant minimum rights to authors from other countries as well as their own.
The treaty on sound recordings supplements the major "related rights" treaty, the Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations, which was adopted in 1961.
The other treaty protects "literary and artistic works," which includes books, computer programs, music, art and movies. It updates the Bern Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the major international copyright treaty in the world today, which was originally adopted in 1886, and most recently revised in 1971.
The accords are to enable payment for the ways in which creations are used and enjoyed by others. They ensure that rightholders can use technology like encryption to protect their rights and to license their works online.
Countries are obliged to provide effective enforcement measures. By distinguishing between temporary and permanent computer copies, the treaties balanced the interests of creators against those of consumers, who will still be able to look at a copyright work without having to pay.
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