| In the process of drafting WIPO Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations, all the countries have agreed that the protection should take "a signal-based approach". But the copyright laws of various countries do not really reflect that approach. Some of them adopt the "program-based approach" that regards the broadcast as a type of works. Such protection is actually granted to programs and leads to the question of justification. Some other countries seem to protect program-carrying signals, but what are really protected are still programs as such since exclusive rights are granted in relation to the fixation of programs and a time period of protection not less than 20 years is also provided for programs. This article argues that the justification for the provisions on broadcasting organization's right is to prevent rerouting of the audience of broadcast to the detriment of broadcasting organizations who are protected as transmitters, rather than creators, of programs. By providing that the program-carrying signals are the subject matter of protection, the copyright law can make sure that broadcasting organizations' right is properly protected without causing confusion in legal logic, chaos in ownership and licensing mechanisms, and the invasion of the public domain. The proper method of protecting flowing program-carrying signals and preventing the "signal theft" is to grant the right of retransmission to broadcasting organizations, instead of providing for the right of reproduction, distribution and making available through information network, which target programs extracted from broadcast signals. Since the right of retransmission only covers the act of simultaneous transmission of broadcast signals, it is meaningless to provide for the time period of protection for signals. |
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