On 20 December 1996, in Geneva, the WIPO Diplomatic Conference on Certain Copyright and Neighboring Rights Questions adopts the WIPO Copyright Treaty. It is a special agreement within the meaning of Article 20 of the Berne Convention. The authentic texts are English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish. The depositary is the Director General of WIPO. The Treaty has twenty-five articles.

Article 1 links it to the Paris Act of 1971 of the Berne Convention: it does not derogate from existing obligations thereunder and requires compliance with Articles 1 to 21 and the Appendix. Article 2 confines copyright protection to expressions and not to ideas, procedures, methods of operation or mathematical concepts as such. Article 4 protects computer programs as literary works, whatever the mode or form of their expression. Article 5 protects compilations of data (databases) which, by reason of the selection or arrangement of their contents, constitute intellectual creations, without extending protection to the data itself.

Article 6 recognizes the exclusive right of authorizing the making available to the public of the original and copies through sale or other transfer of ownership, leaving Parties free to determine the conditions of exhaustion after the first authorized transfer. Article 7 recognizes a commercial rental right for computer programs, cinematographic works (where such rental has led to widespread copying materially impairing the exclusive right of reproduction) and works embodied in phonograms, as determined in national law. Article 8 recognizes the exclusive right of communication to the public, including making available so that members of the public may access the works from a place and at a time individually chosen by them.

Article 9 requires Parties not to apply Article 7(4) of the Berne Convention to photographic works. Article 10 permits limitations and exceptions in certain special cases that do not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work and do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author. Article 11 requires adequate legal protection and effective legal remedies against the circumvention of effective technological measures used by authors. Article 12 requires remedies against the removal or alteration of electronic rights management information and against the distribution of copies knowing that such information has been removed or altered.

Article 13 applies Article 18 of the Berne Convention. Article 14 requires measures to ensure application of the Treaty and enforcement procedures permitting effective action against infringements, including expeditious remedies and remedies which constitute a deterrent. Article 15 establishes an Assembly, meeting in ordinary session once every two years. Article 17 opens the Treaty to Member States of WIPO; the Assembly may admit competent intergovernmental organizations; the European Community may become party. Article 22 admits no reservations.

Article 19 opens the Treaty for signature until 31 December 1997 by any Member State of WIPO and by the European Community. Article 20 provides that the Treaty shall enter into force three months after 30 instruments of ratification or accession by States have been deposited. Those conditions were later met; the Treaty entered into force on 6 March 2002. Article 23 permits denunciation, which takes effect one year from receipt of the notification by the Director General.

It is not the Paris Act of 1971 of the Berne Convention. It is not the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, adopted in Geneva on the same day.

Image: WIPO Headquarters, Geneva; Emmanuel Berrod, 30 October 2020; CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: WIPO Copyright Treaty. Treaty text: WIPO Copyright Treaty, Geneva, 20 December 1996.