Playing phonorecords on public and National Treatment

The following question may not have a direct application in the U.S., but nevertheless, here it is.

Israel's copyright Law is the UK 1911 Act (yes, it still applies). Under section 19 of the Act, a record (phonogram) is deemed a "musical work", Accordingly, the record companies have the exclusive right, inter alia, of public performance of the records. A question arises, however, with regard to "foreign" records. Israel enacted to it's law in 1971 Geneva convention, which prohibits duplication of records. Accordingly, a citizen or a subject of a contracting state is protected in Israel against copying of his record. Literally, foreign record companies are not protected against playing their records in public. An argument was raised, however, that by virtue of the "National Treatment" rule of the Bern Convention and of TRIPS and since local (Israeli) phone records companies are protected, foreign record companies are entitled to such protection, even if the laws of their country do provide such protection.

After this rather long introduction, I am interested in your responses concerning the following two questions (any other comments is obviously more than welcome):

I. Under which country's laws do record companies have an exclusive

     copyright with regard to playing the record in public ?

II. Would you subscribe to, or beg to differ from, the argument of

     application of "National Treatment" rule in this context ?

Thank you

Eran Bareket
<bareket[_at_]netvision.net.il> Received on Mon Aug 24 1998 - 20:24:06 GMT