A primer on performers’ rights—for the sixth time

Abstract

Richard Arnold, currently serving at the Court of Appeal, also known as one of the most experienced judges of IP cases in UK, published the first edition of his seminal monograph on performers’ rights in 1990. Since then, the system of copyright law and related/neighbouring rights has gone through enormous changes. On the one hand, this is due to the rapid advancement of technologies, especially the internet (which coincidentally emerged around the time the first edition of Arnold’s book came out). On the other hand, this field of law went through significant harmonization both at the regional level (especially in the European Union) and at the international forum (mainly via the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement and the World Intellectual Property Organization [WIPO] Internet Treaties). Well, the original WIPO Internet Treaties (namely, the Copyright Treaty and Performances and Phonograms Treaty) did not provide a complete coverage of performers’ interests though. Until the conclusion of the Beijing Treaty, performers’ rights were lagging behind copyright holders’ and related rightholders’ (other than performers’) rights. Needless to say, they are still several steps behind those stronger rightholders, but more on this later.