Study On The Legal Protection Of Performers’ Rights

The Performers’ rights evolved with the development of technology of reproduction and communication, accompanied with the long-term struggle between performers and audiovisual producers. Due to the scope extension of performers’ rights and the variety of communication measures, especially the advent of internet, the contents of performers’ rights became more and more abundant and the performance itself more and more showed the independence. Therefore the improvement of the protection for performers’rights became more and more urgent.From June20through26,2012, Diplomatic Conference on the Protection of Audiovisual Performances was held in Beijing. Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances was passed on this conference:the purpose of this treaty is mainly to resolve the protection of audiovisual performers’ rights. This treaty is sole international treaty, after the International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations (Rome Convention), trade-related intellectual property agreements (" TRIPS ") and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Convention "(WPPT), aiming to improve the protection of the performers’ rights. The conclusion of this treaty represents the world trends and point of view on the protection of the rights of performers, which would make the intellectual property rights protection system more perfect.The current Copyright Law essentially attributed the rights of performers to areas of neighboring rights, Subordinate to the author’s copyright. However, with the social development and the progress of science and technology, the Increasingly independence of the performers’ rights will inevitably conflict with the authors’ copyrights. The current legislative system didn’t provide a good solution to this problem. The writer tries to start from the study of the nature of the performers rights, Combined with theoretical research achievements at home and abroad, and explore how to improve the rights of performers. In the precondition of non-violation of the authors’legitimate rights, I study how to balance the right conflicts between authors and performers. How laws can provide a certain degree of protection for the performers’ rights and give the public with legitimate optimal way to get the work While Spread of the authors’ works. Finally, it can promote the innovation and communication of our country’s cultural undertakings.With respect to the conflict of rights between performers and authors upon strengthening the protection of the performers’ rights, after analysis of the existing statutory license compulsory license system defects, the writher studies the rationality of using the Rights-weakening and Interests-sharing Theory to solve such contradictions. According to comprehensive study results of all aspects, I propose to adjust the legal system on the performers’ rights in the existing Copyright Law, in order to improve the protection of the performers’ rights.The main body of this paper is divided into six parts, plus a preamble and postscript. The preamble starts from two real cases in the society, analyzes its deep reasons for disputes, and raises the necessity for the improvement of the protection of the performers’ rights in accordance with the development of the performers’ rights and the situation of our country. Chapter one discusses the origins and development of the performers’ rights, and demonstrates that the content and protection has been continually strengthened. Chapter two analyzes several important perspectives on the nature of the rights of performers in Intellectual property theorists, and gives a brief discussion of its main features, the analysis shows that the performers’ rights should belong to the scope of the neighboring rights. Chapter three discusses the legislative provisions on the performers’ rights in several major countries in the world today, analyzes the differences between the common law and the civil law. Chapter four and chapter five are the core contents of this thesis. Chapter four has four aspects, discusses Several issues on protection of the performers’ rights in China, including:the scope of performers doesn’t cover the performers of folklore, the performers’ rights don’t include mechanical performance rights, the balance system between performers and authors needs to be improved and the Performers Collective Management Association hasn’t founded. In chapter five, the writer, as far as the third amendment to the Copyright Law, analyzes the relevant problems regarding the draft to the third amendment and according to the aforesaid contents, proposes that legislatives should adjust part of the contents of the draft. Such adjustments may improve the protection for performers’ rights and promote the prosperity and development of China’s cultural undertakings. Chapter six discusses some existing problems related to the protection of the performers’ rights. For example, on one hand, the expansion of the scope of protection of the performers’ rights will inevitably lead the conflicts with the authors’ rights; on the other hand, the current statutory limitation on the authors’rights has some defects. Writer, combined with the related theoretical studies, proposes some suggestions, especially regarding the rights conflicts between the authors and the performers and thinks that the Rights-weakening and Interests-sharing Theory will be a reasonable way to resolve such conflict.In summary, with the continuous development of society and the advancement of technology, the performers’ performances will act as a more and more important role in cultural transmission, which has become a relatively independent stage. Naturally, to improve the protection of the performers’ rights can’t stick to the traditional view again. Especially in today’s society, the creation, performance, post-production, has formed a complete industrial chain and depended on each other, it is the inevitable requirement to promote the prosperity and development of culture and the arts as a whole that improving the protection of performers’ rights on the basis of non-infringement of the authors’ copyright. Now, the legislatives are drafting the third amendment to Copyright Law, the legal system should be forward-looking and appropriate advance. Therefore, a scientific and rational system of protection of the performers’ rights will have a profound impact for the promotion of intellectual property development, balance of the authors, performers and the public interest.