Retransmission and US Compliance with TRIPS

Retransmission, the rebroadcasting of a primary broadcast by a third party, has occurred on a commercial basis around the world for over fifty years. This work examines the treatment of retransmission as an international copyright norm in TRIPS. It focuses upon the contentious issue of so-called local area retransmission whereby retransmission occurs within the area served by the primary broadcast.

Also extensively analysed is the meaning in the retransmission context of the term “equitable remuneration”, given that the international norm permits a right to equitable remuneration to be a surrogate for the grant of an exclusive right. The outcomes of this study (which extend to treaty history, economics and restitutionary monetary awards) are applied to the treatment of retransmission in the copyright law of the US. In so doing some conclusions are made as to the compliance of US law with the TRIPS norm.

David Brennan is an academic lawyer located at the University of Melbourne, Australia.