The 19th session of the Standing Committee on Copyrights and Related Rights (SCCR) concluded this past Friday. Since my last post, the SCCR discussed the treaty for protection of audio visual performers (AV Treaty) and also a treaty for protection of broadcasting organizations.

The AV Treaty proposes to provide copyright protection to actors and other performers in movies and other audiovisual works. An effort to conclude the AV treaty had failed in 2000, as countries failed to reach agreement on the issue of how rights would be transferred from performers to producers. The issue is significant because, a motion picture involves the creative input of a large number of people and requires rights to be aggregated in one entity, usually the producer, to enable licensing rights to it. The law with respect to transfer of rights varies in different jurisdictions.

PK Staff Attorney Rashmi Rangnath discusses the issues presented at the
May 18th, 2009 public meeting held by the US Copyright Office and the US
Patent and Trademark office on the topic of copyright exceptions for the
blind or other persons with disabilities.

Grab it from our podcast or media feeds, download the
episode here or listen to
it in the player below.