La protection des artistes interprètes et exécutants à l'heure des médias de réseau
If we assume that copyright laws and the evolution of media are linked, our analysis of performance artists attempts to clarify this relationship. Using mediology as a tool for communication theory, we first identified a dominant media, or what is referred as a «mediasphere» in mediology. Next, we qualified its resultant mentality. Finally, we used these characteristics to examine copyright laws in an effort to determine the position of performers in a given mediasphere context. More specifically, the first part of this thesis focuses on the influence of the print as a dominant medium. The prevalence of this medium demands a level of statism and fixity which prompts us to analyze the importance of fixation in copyright laws. Considering the predominance of fixation in copyright laws and the transitory nature of the artistic performance, performers are only granted neighboring rights, not copyrights. Nowadays, the emergence of the electronic medium seems to give way to a new mediasphere in which dematerialisation is the key. Therefore, fixation as a criterion for determining whether or not to copyright a work of art is slowly losing its significance. Despite this fact, the international copyright community continues to believe that performers should be protected by neighboring rights. However, the WIPO Treaty of 1996 grants performers greater rights. Is this the first sign ofperformers gaining potential access to authorship?
Fixation Internet Performers Neighboring rights Copyright Electronic media Mediology