Ja­son Nathu

Copy­right col­lect­ing agen­cies (al­so called copy­right col­lec­tives or col­lec­tions agen­cies) are or­gan­i­sa­tions which col­lect roy­al­ties on be­half of their mem­bers.Their mem­bers may in­clude artists, au­thors, mu­si­cians and oth­er own­ers of copy­right works.Artists (such as vi­su­al artists, au­thors, mu­si­cians and film­mak­ers) use copy­right col­lect­ing agen­cies to grant li­cences of their copy­right to third par­ties.

The col­lec­tions agen­cies (1) ne­go­ti­ate li­cences of their mem­bers' works, (2) col­lect the roy­al­ties, (3) re­tain a pro­por­tion of the fees that they col­lect as a com­mis­sion, and (4) then dis­trib­ute the re­main­der to their copy­right own­er mem­bers.These agen­cies make it eas­i­er for copy­right own­ers to li­cense their work. They al­so sim­pli­fy the process of li­cens­ing for prospec­tive users of copy­right ma­te­r­i­al who oth­er­wise need to iden­ti­fy and lo­cate the copy­right own­er and ne­go­ti­ate a li­cence on an in­di­vid­ual ba­sis.

Some copy­right col­lect­ing agen­cies have rec­i­p­ro­cal re­la­tion­ships with equiv­a­lent col­lect­ing agen­cies over­seas and are able to ac­cess li­cens­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for their mem­bers out­side Trinidad and To­ba­go. As such, they may al­so be able to fa­cil­i­tate li­cences of in­ter­na­tion­al works to Trinida­di­an users.Oth­er func­tions of copy­right col­lec­tion agen­cies in­clude:

�2 Rep­re­sent­ing copy­right own­er mem­bers and pro­tect­ing their eco­nom­ic and cre­ative in­ter­ests by doc­u­ment­ing and iden­ti­fy­ing unau­tho­rised use of mem­bers' works and pur­su­ing in­fringers;

�2 Cre­at­ing in­ter­na­tion­al af­fil­i­a­tions with copy­right col­lect­ing so­ci­eties over­seas so that li­cence fees can be col­lect­ed for over­seas use; and

�2 Ed­u­cat­ing the pub­lic and rep­re­sent­ing their mem­bers on a na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al lev­el.

There are sev­er­al com­pet­ing copy­right col­lec­tive agen­cies in T&T. These in­clude the Copy­right Mu­sic Or­gan­i­sa­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Copy­right Col­lec­tion Or­gan­i­sa­tion and Awe­some Lim­it­ed. It should be not­ed that these en­ti­ties are all pri­vate cor­po­ra­tions and are not state agen­cies.Sec­tion 41A(1) of the Copy­right Act Chap. 82:80 sets out the el­e­ments of an of­fence as it re­lates to pub­lic per­for­mances.

Any per­son who caus­es an in­fringe­ment by the pub­lic per­for­mance of a copy­right work or sound record­ing; or by the play­ing or show­ing in pub­lic of a sound record­ing or film is guilty of an of­fence if he/she knew or had rea­son to be­lieve that copy­right would be in­fringed. By sec­tion 41A(2) of the Act "a per­son guilty of an of­fence un­der sub­sec­tion (1), is li­able on sum­ma­ry con­vic­tion to a fine of two hun­dred and fifty thou­sand dol­lars and to im­pris­on­ment for ten years."

The Min­istry of Le­gal Af­fairs pro­vides guide­lines on the li­cences re­quired for pub­lic per­for­mances:

�2 Any per­for­mance that is out­side of the nor­mal do­mes­tic cir­cle is pub­lic. At any pub­lic par­ty, both the pro­mot­er and the DJ are re­quired to ob­tain a li­cence from the rel­e­vant col­lec­tive man­age­ment or­gan­i­sa­tion(s) to play mu­sic. This ap­plies even if the DJ is at a house par­ty or 'blocko.'

�2 It is of no con­se­quence whether the pub­lic per­for­mance is giv­en live or by means of a ra­dio, tele­vi­sion, stereo play­er, juke­box, video or karaoke. Nei­ther does it mat­ter if no ad­mis­sion fee is charged nor whether the per­form­ers are paid or not. Fur­ther, the pos­ses­sion of a record, tape or CD does not grant the right to per­form that mu­sic in pub­lic. In each of these in­stances a li­cence is nec­es­sary.

�2 Dur­ing Car­ni­val, reg­is­tered DJs are of­fered a spe­cial tap­ing con­ces­sion that au­tho­ris­es the record­ing of com­pi­la­tion mu­sic for the pur­pose of per­form­ing such mu­sic on trucks.

A li­cence is not re­quired for:

�2 The play­ing of mu­sic in the pri­va­cy of your home.

�2 Per­for­mances dur­ing re­li­gious ser­vices in church­es or oth­er es­tab­lished places of wor­ship.

�2 Live per­for­mances of mu­si­cals, op­eras, bal­lets and oth­er dance.