A Study On The Expansion Of Broadcasting Organizations' Retransmission Rights In The Digital Age

The currently effective international treaties that regulate the rights of broadcasting organizations are “The International Treaty for the Protection of Performers,Producers of Phonograms,and Broadcasting Organizations(the Rome Convention)” in 1964 and “The Propagation of Satellite Communication The Convention on Signals Containing Programmes(SAT Convention)” in 1974 and“The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement(TRIPS Agreement)” in 1994.The“Rome Convention”was formulated on the basis of the fourth technical conditions of the information dissemination revolution,reflecting the technical requirements at that time and basically adapting to the needs of broadcasting organizations' right protection under the current technological conditions.The“SAT Convention ” mainly stipulates the protection of transmission of satellite signals carrying programmes between broadcasting organizations or similar organizations and cable broadcasters.It does not directly protect any copyright or neighboring rights,but only requires member states to undertake obligations to prevent Broadcasting organizations or individuals illegally broadcast program signals sent via satellite but not to the organization(or the person)for broadcast.The“TRIPS Agreement”on theprotection of broadcasting organization rights basically followed the protection of the“ Roman Convention ” and did not take into account the background of the development of new technologies.With the advent of the digital age,new changes have emerged in broadcasting technology,and streaming media technology has been widely used in the broadcasting field.The number of using new technology to pirate broadcast program signals is increasing,and it's mainly manifested as the following three forms: the use of a computer to temporarily copy and record broadcast signals;the use of the Internet to broadcast recorded broadcast signals;and the act of selling recorded broadcast programs.Such rampant piracy of broadcasting program signals has greatly threatened the interests of broadcasting organizations,and the threatened broadcasting organizations have therefore strongly demanded an increase in the protection of broadcasting organization rights.Since then,an upsurge of discussion on the improvement of the protection system for the right of broadcasting organization has swept the country and abroad.In the discussion on improving the level of protection of broadcasting organizations,many people advocate the improvement of the protection level of the broadcasting organizations' retransmission right.However,there are different opinions on why it is necessary to expand the retransmission rights of broadcasting organizations and how they should expand the retransmission rights of broadcasting organizations.Through the reading of the articles on retransmission rights of broadcasting organizations,the author discovered that most of the articles on this topic are only based on the broadcasting organization rights infringement and the discussion of the international organization on the improvement of broadcasting organizations retransmission rights.However,in discussing the expansion of retransmission rights of broadcasting organizations,in addition to considering the current infringement status of rights,the latest developments in the protection of broadcasting rights in international broadcasting organizations,the factors that affect the scope of the retransmission rights of broadcasting organizations in China should also be taken intoaccount.Based on these,this article is divided into three chapters to discuss the expansion of broadcasting organizations' retransmission right in the digital age.The first chapter of this article begins with the origin of broadcasting organization rights system,introduces the evolution process of the international and domestic systems of broadcasting organization rights,and on this basis,lists the series of challenges that broadcasting organization's retransmission right faced.The second chapter of this article conducts a comprehensive analysis on the WIPO Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations(Draft),which has been widely discussed by the international organization and hoped to gain the inspiration on how to improve the protection level of the retransmission right of China.In the third part of this article,combining several factors that should be considered in the expansion of retransmission rights for broadcasting organizations,the author put forward his own suggestions on the expansion of retransmission rights of broadcasting organizations.