An International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations was concluded at Rome in October, 1961. Ireland was represented at the Conference which drafted the Convention, which was held under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, the International Labour Office and the Bureau of the International Union for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. The Convention was signed by 36 countries, including Ireland. In accordance with the provisions of Article 25, the Convention entered into force on 18th May, 1964, following ratification by six countries, one of which was Britain.
The provisions of the Copyright Act, 1963 which came into operation on the 1st October, 1964, meet those requirements of the Convention relating to Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations, but there is no provision in this country for the specific protection of performers. This Bill is designed to meet the Convention's requirements relating to performers and to enable us to ratify the Convention.
Article 4 sets out a basic feature of the Convention in requiring each contracting State to grant national treatment—the same treatment as is given to nationals of the State — to performers whose performance takes place in another contracting State or is incorporated in a phonogram or a broadcast made or published in or broadcast from that other contracting State. Section 12 of the Bill will enable the Government to satisfy this requirement.
Certain acts in relation to performances which would infringe the performers' rights or would be contrary to their interests are set out in Article 7 of the Convention and the article requires that the protection to be given to performers shall include the possibility of preventing these acts. It is not proposed to create a property right in a performance in the nature of a copyright, which a performer could enforce by civil action or which he might assign for enforcement to any group such as a performers' union. It is proposed to meet the requirements of Article 7 in sections 2, 3 and 5 of the Bill. The proposals in those sections provide for protection of performers by making it a penal offence to do certain acts in relation to performances. It will, for instance, be an offence, punishable by fine on summary conviction or conviction on indictment to make a record or a film of a performance, without the consent of the performer, to sell or hire such a record or film, or to use it for the purpose of giving a public performance.
Article 12 of the Convention provides that where commercial records are used for broadcasting purposes or for public performance, the user shall make a payment to the performers or the producers of the records or both. Under the provisions of the Copyright Act, 1963, payment is required to be made by the broadcasters or users to the owners of copyright in sound recordings, that is to the producers of records, when their records are broadcast or used for public performance. Accordingly, our law already complies with Article 12 of the Convention. It is understood that, under an agreement made between the recording companies and the various performers' unions, a percentage of the money which these companies receive for this use of their records is paid over to the performers' unions for the benefit of their members. The proposals in the present Bill will not interfere with this arrangement.
This initiation of proceedings under the Act will be the responsibility of the person aggrieved.
I recommend the Bill for the approval of the House.