IPOPHL tackles wider IP protection of actors’ performances

Key to securing performers’ rights in the digital era

Issues of remuneration, protected performances , and technology’s impact on  performers’ rights were tackled in a productive focus group discussion initiated with the Philippine actors and performers, by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL).

The IPOPHL convened members of the Film Development Academy of the Philippines, Performers Rights Society of the Philippines, Actors’ Guild, and Artists Welfare Project Inc.

The Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances aims to modernize and update the protection for singers, musicians, dancers and actors in audiovisual performances for the digital era.  The Treaty essentially aims to elevate the level of protection for performers to that already enjoyed by other artists such as musicians.

Specifically, one of the rights the treaty grants to performers is the right to “authorize the making available to the public by wire or wireless means, any performance fixed in an audiovisual fixation in such a way that members of the public may access the fixed performance from a place and at a time individually chosen by them.”

This right covers, in particular, on-demand, interactive making available through the Internet.

This is a key right for performers to enforce their copyright-related rights in today’s digital environment, given the prominence of streaming platforms such as Netflix and HBO Go, and the widespread use of Youtube, said Paolo Lanteri, WIPO Legal Officer at the discussion.

“As soon as you put something on the internet, it is immediately accessible in other territories and the only way you can have protection beyond your national borders is through international treaties,” Lanteri added.

The WIPO legal officer likewise advised Filipino actors and performers to be proactive in safeguarding their “copyright-like” rights in negotiating with producers and especially with negotiating terms of remuneration with broadcasting or streaming platforms.

“Filipinos’  average amount of time spent on the internet is 40% more than the rest of the world, and the streaming services are flourishing,” Mr. Lanteri noted.

Mr. Lanteri expounded that with the Beijing Treaty, an important update from the previous Rome Treaty, improvisations are covered: in that when a performance that does not stem from a script or prior work, and therefore improvised and it is being recorded, the one recording must ask permission from the actor.

Philippine actors Rez Cortez, Bembol Roco, Gina Alajar, Alice Dixson, Carlo Maceda, Menggie Cobarrubias, and Piolo Pascual joined in IPOPHL’s half-day forum.

This focus group discussion forms part of  IPOPHL’s effort to consult stakeholders as it firms up its position to accede to the Beijing Treaty. It has undertaken consultations in October and November last year.