The Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances came into effect on 28 April 2020 after being ratified by 30 countries. This legally binding multilateral convention, a result of 20 years of negotiations, was adopted in 2012 under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). 

It regulates copyright for audiovisual performances and establishes new moral and economic rights for performers who work in film, TV, and digital audiovisual media. It regulates five kinds of exclusive economic rights of performers for audiovisual performances: the rights of reproduction, distribution, rental,  availability and broadcasting, and communication to the public (which includes dissemination on the Internet). According to WIPO, the new treaty brings audiovisual performers into the fold of the international copyright framework in a comprehensive way, for the first time referring to the regulations protecting their works on the Internet.

The Beijing Treaty obliges each of the ratifying states to adopt, in accordance with their legal system, the measures necessary to ensure the application of the treaty, specifically to ensure enforcement against any act of infringement of rights.