Protection of the rights of performers in accordance with German law

Keywords: rights of the performer, moral rights, rights to use, communication tothe public, the right of the performer to demand payment of remuneration, the validityperiod of the rights to use The article examines the protection of performers' rights in Germany, introduced by the Act amending copyright regulations of 24 June 1985. The Copyright Act includes Part 2 «Neighboring Rights», section 3 of which deals with the protection of performers' rights, and the law itself is called the «German Copyright and Neighboring Rights Act». The German Law of 10 September 2003 on the regulation of copyright in the information society completely amends §§ 73−83 of the Copyright and Related Rights Act, which governs the protection of performers' rights under the WPPT.The provisions of § 73 «Performer» are extended to the performance of works of folk art. Paragraphs 74−76 are devoted to the protection of moral rights, which were indicated fragmentarily by previous legislation. In the corrected form, moral rightstake precedence over rights of use, which confirms the special adherence of German law to them. Whereas under previous legislation so-called “consent rights” were granted to performers, the updated paragraphs grants the present rights of use:recording, reproduction and distribution, communication to the public, rights of use, the right of the performer to demand payment of remuneration, the sharing of several performances.In Germany, the rights of the organizer of performances are protected. If the performance of the performer is organized by a company, then the rights to use belong, in addition to the performer, also to the owner of the company. According to §83, the provisions of Section 6 «Copyright Restrictions» of Part I «Copyright» of the Copyright and Related Rights Act apply respectively to the restriction of the rights of the performer and the organizer of the performance.The protection of performers in Germany is in accordance with the provisions of the Rome Convention, the WPPT, the relevant EU directives. With further improvement of the protection of the rights of performers in Ukraine, it would be useful to use the experience of Germany regarding the protection of the rights of the organizer of a performance and determining the term for the protection of rights to performances recorded on a phonogram.