DAMASCUS - Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad issued Legislative Decree No. 74 for 2005 on September 11, approving Syria’s accession to the Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations, Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported.
The Rome Convention secures protection in performances of performers, phonograms of producers of phonograms and broadcasts of broadcasting organizations.
Performers (actors, singers, musicians, dancers and other persons who perform literary or artistic works) are protected against certain acts they have not consented to. Such acts are: the broadcasting and the communication to the public of their live performance; the fixation of their live performance; the reproduction of such a fixation if the original fixation was made without their consent or if the reproduction is made for purposes different from those for which they gave their consent.
Producers of phonograms enjoy the right to authorize or prohibit the direct or indirect reproduction of their phonograms.
Broadcasting organizations enjoy the right to authorize or prohibit certain acts, namely: the rebroadcasting of their broadcasts; the fixation of their broadcasts; the reproduction of such fixations; the communication to the public of their television broadcasts if such communication is made in places accessible to the public against payment of an entrance fee.
According to the Convention, protection must last at least until the end of a period of 20 years computed from the end of the year in which:
(a) The fixation was made for phonograms and for performances incorporated therein.
(b) The performance took place for performances not incorporated in phonograms.
(c) The broadcast took place for broadcasts.