Recording rights are defined under s185 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. An “exclusive recording contract” is simply a contract between a performer and another where that person is entitled exclusively to make recordings of the artist’s performances for exploitation. It follows therefore that a “person having recording rights” is a person who has the benefit of an exclusive recording contract.
Under s186 it is an infringement of a person’s recording rights (of a particular performance) to record, without the consent of the performer, the whole or a substantial part of their performance (other than for private and domestic use). If the artist consents to the recording but the party with the recording rights does not then there will still lbe an infringement of that party’s recording rights.
s187 dictates that a party’s recording rights are infringed where a person (without consent): (1) shows or plays in public the whole or a substantial part of the performance; or (2) broadcasts or includes in a cable programme service the whole or any substantial part of the performancce by means of a recording which was, and which the person knows or has reason to believe, was made without the appropriate consent.
There are further infringements, under s188 a party’s recording rights are infringed where a person (without consent): (1) imports into the UK otherwise than for his private and domestic use; or (2) in the course of a business possesses, sells, hires or distributes a recording of a performance of which is, and which that perrson knows or has reason to believe is, an illicit recording. Where a defendant shows that the illicit recording was innocently acquired by him or his predecessor in title, he will only be liable for damages not exceeding a reasonable payment in respect of the act complained of.
