The Performance Right

The Performance Right is the right for Producers and Performers to be financially compensated whenever their recordings and performances are publicly performed, broadcasted and communicated to the public.

This right can only be exercised when Trinidad and Tobago becomes a Signatory to World Intellectual Property Organisation Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT). It is within this Treaty the right to payment is documented.

WPPT Article 15 Common Provisions Right to Remuneration for Broadcasting and Communication to the Public.
“Performers and producers of phonograms shall enjoy the right to a Single Equitable Remuneration for the direct or indirect use of phonograms published for commercial purposes for broadcasting or for any communication to the public. Contracting Parties may establish in their national legislation that the single equitable remuneration shall be claimed from the user by the performer or by the producer of a phonogram or by both.

“Contracting Parties may enact national legislation that, in the absence of an agreement between the performer and the producer of a phonogram, sets the terms according to which performers and producers of phonograms shall share the single Equitable Remuneration.”

This sharing is clearly outlined within our Copyright Act Neighboring Rights Section 23 –3
“Unless otherwise agreed between the performer and the producer, half (50%) of the amount received by the producer under subsection (1) shall be paid by the producer to the performer”.