I thank the committee for facilitating the matter and I will begin by giving a brief background to both treaties.
The international protection of copyright and related rights was governed principally by the 1886 Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works as periodically updated and the 1961 Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations. However, technological advances have affected greatly the effectiveness of these instruments in later years. It was therefore decided in the early 1990s to update them to cater for advances in digital reproduction and distribution.
The result is the WIPO copyright treaty and the WIPO performances and phonograms treaty, which were adopted by a diplomatic conference in late 1996, during Ireland's Presidency of the EU. It is not possible in the time available to go into the provisions of the treaties in any detail. In summary, the WCT and WPPT extend protection to computer programmes and databases, and they give exclusive distribution, communication and rental rights to copyright holders. They also provide for the prevention of interference with rights management information, which relates to copyright notices or warnings on CDs, DVDs and other copyrighted materials.
Although all EU member states signed the treaties between late 1996 and late 1997, it was necessary to postpone ratification to give time to bring national copyright regimes fully into line with that of the treaties. In recent months, believing member states have completed these legal changes, the European Commission and the current Finnish EU Presidency have been actively encouraging national confirmation of the completion of national procedures with a view to simultaneous ratification as soon as possible.
While the latest indications are that a few member states may not be in a position to do so until the new year, our national responsibility is to ensure Ireland is in a position at an early date to ratify both treaties. An approval in early course of these draft motions on the treaties by Dáil Éireann, followed by the signing of the appropriate instrument by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and their onward transmission to Geneva are the main remaining steps to be taken to ensure Ireland will be ready to ratify when required.
It is important for the committee to note that as a result of our Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000, Ireland has been in full compliance with all provisions of both treaties for some time. It has therefore been in a position to ratify when fellow EU member states were ready and when Government and Dáil Éireann had given approval.
The ratification of these WIPO treaties by Ireland and its EU partners will underline our having made the legal changes required to better protect the rights of copyright owners, performers and producers of recordings. The proposed ratification means the substantive obligations in the treaties have already been met in law, and in that sense it would mark the end of a process that began more than a decade ago. However, it is important that we acknowledge that formally through the proposed ratification of the relevant treaties. I commend the motion to the committee.