Message to Promoters and Venue Owners
Copyright Compliance

This is to advise that under the Jamaica Copyright Act 1993 any venue operator that allows an event to be staged at their venue without the proper licence will be held liable for infringement of the Copyright act.

Article 31 (6) of the Jamaica Copyright Act 1993 states:

“Where the copyright in a literary, dramatic or musical work is infringed by a performance at a place of public entertainment, any person who gave permission for that place to be used for the performance is also liable for the infringement unless when he gave permission he believed on reasonable grounds that the performance would not infringe copyright.

Article 31 (8) (b)

“an occupier of premises who gave permission for the apparatus to be brought onto the premises, if when he gave permission he knew or had reason to believe that the apparatus was likely to be so used as to infringe copyright;” is liable for infringement.

This therefore means that all show promoters and other users of music for public purposes should apply to JACAP for the relevant permit and we ask that you require from all promoters using your venue to produce such a permit before the event.

Thank you for your cooperation.


Sincerely,
Jamaica Association of Composers Authors and Publishers Ltd.