Union européenne

Canada

Droit d'auteur et droits connexes

1. Article 9(1) of the TRIPS Agreement in conjunction with Article 11(1)(ii) of the Berne Convention (1971) requires that authors enjoy the exclusive right of authorizing "any communication to the public of the performance of their works". Section 3(1)(f) of the Copyright Act grants to authors the sole right "in the case of any literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, to communicate the work to the public by telecommunication". The term "telecommunication" in the Copyright Act is limited to transmissions "by wire, radio, visual, optical or other electromagnetic system". Why does the Copyright Act limit communications to those "by telecommunication"?

Berne "communication" rolls together the aspect of telecommunication, e.g., broadcasting, with the aspect of performance in public. In the Canadian Copyright Act "telecommunication" is used etymologically in the sense of a communication from afar as opposed to a performance in front of the public, i.e. a live audience. The definition of "telecommunication" in Section 2 is so broad as to be technologically neutral. This feature ensures that the Copyright Act's communication right is already well adapted to the exigencies of the digital environment.