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Actors
urge anti-piracy protection in internet age
Hong
Kong actress Maggie Cheung called for performers to
be protected worldwide from having their work or image
misused on the Internet or by other pirates in the digital
age.
Cheung, fresh from receiving a fourth Best Actress trophy
at the Golden Horse Awards in Taipei for her role in
the film In The Mood for Love, called for a new international
treaty being hammered out to protect the rights of audiovisual
performers.
Accompanied by her husband French filmmaker Olivier
Assayas, she took part in a news conference with Argentinian
tango singer Susana Rinaldi and Cameroon singer Joe
Mboule.
The trio backed a pact enshrining performers’ economic
and so-called ‘moral’ rights to ensure their
images are not hijacked for advertising or distorted
for pornography.
The event was organized by the International Federation
of Actors, representing 100 guilds of actors, singers
and dancers in 70 countries. The London-based FIA has
been lobbying at the Geneva negotiations hosted by the
World Intellectual Property Organization, the United
Nations copyright and patent agency.
Cheung, a founding member of the Hong Kong Artists Guild,
said she was speaking on behalf of its 10,000 members.
Hong Kong pop singer Andy Lau had been helpless when
his image, copied from a single frame during a television
appearance, recently appeared for a credit card promotion,
according to Cheung.
“When my colleagues and I allow a producer to include
our performances in a movie or a piece of work, we want
to be able to ensure that no one can misuse our work
in any way that we haven’t authorized”, she
said.
“The Hong Kong situation is still very basic in
audiovisual performance rights protection in the areas
of broadcasting, Internet, promotion and merchandising”,
she added.
Cheung, 36, who has more than 60 film credits, added:
“On a more personal level, I am very concerned
about the Internet because when I look up ’Maggie
Cheung’ on the Internet I see about 25 sites on
my work, or photos of me, even clips from my films which
I didn’t even know about and nobody even asked
me if I would allow this to be put onto a site.
“I think this will grow more and more serious because
of the Internet and new technology”, she said.
“We need to put a stop to this or at least have
some kind of legal rights protection of artists of how
this is going to be in the future because it will be
bigger and bigger and never stop unless there is some
law.”
Rinaldi, a tango legend, commented: “Even the performers
with successful careers need basic rights.” Mboule
said most African performers lacked contracts and received
ridiculously low fees for appearing in Western films.
Negotiators from more than 100 countries are due to
agree on the pact, but a similar effort failed in 1996.
“One of the biggest pushes at this conference comes
from the U.S. performers who are extremely concerned
about moral rights in view of the kinds of infringements
that they are already seeing taking place on the Internet
of their images”, said Katherine Sand, FIA general
secretary.
Diplomats say the United States and the European Union
differ over whether the pact should include a blanket
clause under which actors would transfer their rights
to producers.
Performers are concerned to ensure that they are paid
their so-called ‘residual rights’, when, works
they appear in, are broadcast or shown outside their
own countries.
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