A Study Of The Rights Of Broadcasting Organizations In The Network Environment

As a kind of new media gradually into the social public’s family, broadcastingtechnology has become a important platform for public’s information communicationand knowledge acquisition since the birth of that in the early1900s.The groups likeradio and television stations invested a lot of manpower and material resources in theprocess of program transmission, but in real life, some illegal persons often stealbroadcast signals to obtain illegal interests. In order to protect the interests ofbroadcasting organizations, many countries’ copyright laws provide for the terms ofthe interests of the protection of broadcasting organizations. At the international level,the Rome Convention, enacted in1961, provides for the protection of the rights ofbroadcasting organizations, also established the basic framework of the protectionof broadcasting organizations which many countries’ copyright laws.The wheel of history continues to move forward, the pace of development ofscience and technology never stops. The development of broadcasting technology hasundergone a change electronic signal from analog broadcasting to digital electronicsignals and from radio broadcasting to cable broadcasting. At present, the sixthrevolution in information technology has come; it is a computer technology led tohighly integrated high-tech multimedia technology in the information revolution. Inthis process, some illegal persons make use of new technology to steal broadcastsignal, some of them copy or record a radio signal through the computer temporarily,some make use of the internet to propagate broadcast signals, as well as some of themrecord the radio programs and manufacture large number of disc to sale. In the face ofvariety acts of piracy, broadcasting organizations feel their interests are threatenedvery much, and strongly demand to improve the protection level of interests in thenetwork environment.For this reason, many countries have begun to amend the copyright law tostrengthen the protection of the interests of broadcasting organizations. Theinternational community also has made an effort. Beginning in1998, the WorldIntellectual Property Organization Copyright and Related Committee has convened25meetings to discuss the formulation of the International Convention on the right to theprotection of broadcasting organizations. In September2006, the community finally drew up the Draft Treaty of WIPO Broadcasting Organizations,(hereinafter referredto as “the Draft Treaty of Broadcasting Organizations"), which is the latest legal textson the protection of the rights of broadcasting organizations. Because the participantsfrom developed countries and developing countries have large differences about theprovisions, so the draft has not been adopt today, but the comprehensive and detailedprovisions of the draft has pointed out a new direction for the amendments of nationallegislation on the rights of broadcasting organizations.In our country, the Copyright Law specifically protects the rights of broadcastingorganizations, but the provisions are very crude. And because of following theprovisions of the Rome Convention, along with the extensive application of digitaltechnology and broadcasting technology, hasn’t been effective protection ofbroadcasting organizations interests for long. I believe that, in order to fully protectthe legitimate rights of broadcasting organizations, our country should keep closeattention to the trends of the draft treaty on broadcasting organizations, to do theappropriate change against the copyright law in China, so as to perfect the system ofprotection of the rights of broadcasting organizations.In this paper, the structure is divided into five parts:The first part is an overview of the rights of broadcasting organizations. This partintroduces the production of the right of Broadcasting Organization, and defines theconcept of this right. Then combs the International Convention protecting the rights ofbroadcasting organizations, among them, the Draft of Broadcasting OrganizationTreaty proposed by the WIPO is the latest legal text on the rights of broadcastingorganizations.The second part is about the updating of the subject of broadcastingorganizations in the network environment. First, it elaborates concepts and types oftraditional broadcasting organizations, and analysis of a range of broadcastingorganizations in the traditional environment. Secondly, it analyzes the way of webbroadcasting and web broadcasting organizations under the network environment, andfocuses on the meanings and scope of the internet broadcasting organizations.\The third part is the change of the content of the right of broadcastingorganizations in the network environment. This part is about the various problemsfaced by the broadcasting organizations in the network environment, based on theprovisions of the Rome Convention, regards the draft treaty as a reference, elaborates the change of the contents of the four rights in the new situation, as well asinterprets the three new rights of broadcasting organizations in the draft treaty.The fourth part is the limitations and exceptions to the rights of broadcastingorganizations in the network environment. The principle of the balance of interests isa fundamental principle of copyright law. In the expansion of the subject and scope ofthe rights of broadcasting organizations, it is a must to pay attention to maintain thebalance between the social public interest and broadcasting organizations. Byanalyzing reasonable use and the term of protection, it advocates the rights’ protectionof broadcasting organizations need appropriate restrictions in the networkenvironment.The fifth part is perfection of legislation for the rights of broadcastingorganizations in our network environment. Because of flowing the provisions of theRome Convention on the rights of broadcasting organizations, some of the relevantprovisions in China have been unable to meet today’s IT development. In this paper,on the basis of the foregoing interpretation and analysis, it discusses how to improvethe system of protection of the rights of broadcasting organizations in our networkenvironment from the subject of rights, content of rights, rights protection andlimitations of rights.