Copyright for Digital Performance Right in Sound Recording

Overview of Copyright for Digital Performance Right in Sound Recording

Section 106(6) of the Copyright Act grants sound-recording copyright owners the absolute right to perform their works through a Digital sound recording. Like the performance right for other types of works, the new digital performance right only puts in for "public" performances. Under the Copyright Act, "Public" performance is defined broadly to include even situations where works are performed to single members of the public in different places and at different times.

The digital performance right is restricted to public performances using a "Digital sound recording." For copyright intend, a performance is transmitted when "sounds are received apart from the place from which they are sent." A "digital sound recording" is the channeling of a sound recording made in whole or in part in a digital format, because the channelization of an audible work is not a digital sound channelization.

The Need of Copyright for Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings

Even though a persistent plea for the creation of a public performance right in sound recordings existed, it was not until 1995 that Congress created such a right. Therefore, the government realized that new digital technologies create both benefits and problems that were not previously examined. As several analysts have acknowledged that Digital technology allows a person to remodel the detailed information, and expression contained within any work whether visional or musical, into a sequence of bits which can be kept as data in a computer. Almost every work of copyright ownership can be encrypted into these bits to be transferred or flawlessly reproduced comparatively.

With the outbreak of Internet facility and with more advancement the ease with which an individual could transmit information quickly and to a large audience is also becoming easier. The advanced digital technology, has improved both the quality and the ability to transmit information to an increasingly greater percentage of the public, meant that something had to be done. It has been realized that without copyright protection in the digital domains, the motivation for artists to create new sound recordings could be reduced, which as a result would deny the public of the potential benefits of the new digital channeling technologies.

Further, the vogue within the music industry suggests that digital broadcast of sound recordings is likely to become a very essential channel for the performance of recorded music shortly and recognizing the importance of having protection in place before the technology to duplicate and distribute digitally becomes promptly available to the public.

All the above-mentioned needs and criteria have amended the Copyright Act in a way that would be helpful to create a system-wide enough to deal with future digital technologies.

What are the advantages of Copyright for Digital Performance Right in Sound Recording?

Copyright is a legal expression used to express the rights that the author has over their literary works. Works covered by copyright range from books, non-dramatic textual work, computer programs, databases, advertisements, maps, technical drawings, cinematography, sound recording, music and softwares etc. It safeguards the creator’s original work. So, it can be said that copyright is the guardian of invention.

Once a Copyright for original work is registered it creates a sense of security in the mind of the author, that his transcript creation is protected under the Copyright Act. The advantages of Copyright are as follows:-