Broadcast exceptions and the Rome Convention

16.12 As discussed in Chapter 15, the International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations (Rome Convention) established a regime for protecting rights neighbouring on copyright, including minimum rights for broadcasting organisations.[7] These rights can be protected by copyright law, as in Australia, or by other measures. Broadcasting and re-broadcasting are defined under the Rome Convention as ‘the transmission by wireless means for public reception of sounds or of images and sounds’.[8]

16.13 The Convention provides for permitted exceptions, which include private use; the use of short excerpts in connection with the reporting of current events; ephemeral fixation by a broadcasting organisation by means of its own facilities and for its own broadcasts; and use solely for the purposes of teaching or scientific research.[9]

16.14 In addition, signatories may provide for the same kinds of limitations with regard to the protection of broadcasting organisations as domestic law provides ‘in connection with the protection of copyright in literary and artistic works’.[10]

[7]International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations, 26 October 1962, ATS 29 (entered into force on 18 May 1964).

[8] Ibid, art 3(f).

[9] Ibid, art 15.

[10] Ibid, art 15(2).