CAUT called on the federal government to protect faculty intellectual property rights in upcoming World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) negotiations about the rights of performers in audiovisual productions.

Universities, among many others, have come to view developments in communication technology and the increased capacity for the presentation and storage of audiovisual information by means of computers as opening up new and potentially lucrative opportunities in the area of distance education.

In a brief submitted to Industry Canada and Heritage Canada, CAUT urged opposition to a U.S. proposal to have a mandatory transfer of rights from performers to producers.

"This treaty will establish basic rights for the protection of performers' audiovisual performances and the fixations of those performances," said Ken Field, a former member of the CAUT executive who represented CAUT at a recent WIPO consultation.

"Faculty members who produce educational and instructional material like online education courses will be treated as performers and covered by this treaty," he added. "Also included will be video recordings of their lectures, or multimedia presentations they prepare for their classes."

CAUT stressed that the creators' ownership of these educational materials must be protected rather than automatically becoming the property of the university.

CAUT also argued that moral rights must also remain with the faculty member who creates the course material. Moral rights include not only the right to be associated with a work as its author or producer but also the right to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification that would be prejudicial to the faculty member's reputation.

The draft treaty is available at www.wipo.nt/eng/meetings/2000/iavp/index_2.htm.