They recorded your live performance and are selling it: the law presumes the rights are yours

It is Puerto Rico’s criminal recording-piracy statute, and it carries inside a rule musicians should know even if they never report anyone: absent a written contract, the artist is presumed to own the rights to record their own live performance. That presumption is the starting point of any negotiation.

The owner of the sounds fixed or contained in a master phonograph record, master disc, master tape, master film or other recording from which the sounds derive, and — in live performances and absent a written contract — the artist or artists. Seizure remedies may also be brought by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

• That the conduct was done knowingly, maliciously and fraudulently, and to obtain personal economic gain or commercial benefit.Verified against the official source
• That it fall within one of three modalities: recordings first fixed before February 15, 1972; recordings of live performances obtained without the owner’s consent; or recordings whose cover, case, label or wrapper does not clearly reveal in a prominent place the manufacturer’s true name and address.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

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   Step 1: Absent a written contract, the artist is presumed owner

   The law says it in one line worth the whole guide: in the absence of a written contract, the artist or artists in a live performance are presumed to be the owners of the rights to record or fix the sounds and audiovisuals of their performances. If someone recorded your performance and no contract says otherwise, the legal presumption runs in your favor.

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   Step 2: The offense requires profit motive and malice

   Worth saying so as not to create false expectations: each modality of the penal article begins with “any person who knowingly, maliciously and fraudulently” and ends in “to obtain personal economic gain or commercial benefit.” Someone recording for themselves, without selling or commercially exploiting it, is not what this text describes.

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   Step 3: Labeling is a modality on its own

   It is the one most visible on the street: promoting, offering for sale, selling, renting, transporting, inducing that, or possessing a recording for personal economic gain or commercial benefit when the recording’s cover, case, label or wrapper does not clearly reveal in a prominent place the manufacturer’s true name and address. “True name and address” means the real name and address of the manufacturer authorizing the duplication.

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   Step 4: Penalties rise with the quantity

   A fixed one (1) year term if the offense involves fewer than one hundred (100) unauthorized sound recordings in any period, with a fine not exceeding twenty-five thousand (25,000) dollars at the court’s discretion. Two (2) years if it involves more than one hundred but fewer than one thousand recordings over one hundred eighty (180) days, with a fine not exceeding two hundred fifty thousand (250,000) dollars. Five (5) years if it involves at least one thousand recordings in one hundred eighty days, or if the accused was previously convicted of the same offense. For live performances and for the labeling modality the law adds audiovisual-recording thresholds — for example, at least sixty-five (65) audiovisual recordings in the first tier of the live-performance modality.

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   Step 5: Contraband recordings: seizure and destruction

   All recordings fixed, transferred or possessed without the owner’s consent, and any recording not including the manufacturer’s true name and address, shall be considered contraband recordings. Owners or their legal representatives, as well as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, may bring the applicable proceedings in court for their confiscation, and once the violation is established the court shall order the seizure, confiscation and destruction of the seized material. The law clarifies that this does not limit the State’s power of warrantless seizure solely in those cases provided by law or recognized by case law.

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   Step 6: Not knowing does not excuse

   The law says it expressly for the contraband article: ignorance of its provisions shall not free the manufacturer, distributor, merchant or possessor from criminal or civil liability, whether they violate them intentionally or not.

It is a criminal matter: the report is filed with the Puerto Rico Police, a route we cover step by step in its own guide. Confiscation proceedings for contraband recordings are brought in court, and the law allows the owner, their legal representative or the State to bring them. If your concern is credit and the integrity of your work rather than pirated sales, that is the moral rights guide; and if you want to register the work, that is the Intellectual Property Registry guide.

• Signing without reading who ends up owning the recording of your live performance: the presumption in your favor operates only absent a written contract.
• Believing any copy is a crime: the law requires malice and a personal or commercial profit motive.
• Ignoring the labeling modality: selling without the manufacturer’s true name and address is its own violation.
• Thinking possession does not count: the text includes possessing for those purposes.
• Claiming ignorance: the law expressly says it does not free you from criminal or civil liability.
• Confusing this law with federal copyright: they are different systems.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Policía de Puerto Rico

  Policía de PR

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov

• Puerto Rico Police

  Policía de Puerto Rico

  policia.pr.gov