2012 Kentucky Revised Statutes CHAPTER 434 OFFENSES AGAINST PROPERTY BY FRAUD 434.445 Unauthorized reproduction and distribution of recorded article or device for sale or rent -- Exemption -- Confiscation and destruction -- Penalties.
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434.445 Unauthorized reproduction and distribution of recorded article or device
for sale or rent -- Exemption -- Confiscation and destruction -- Penalties.
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
Any person who knowingly transfers or causes to be transferred any sounds
recorded on a phonograph record, disc, wire, tape, film, or other article on which
sounds are recorded, with the intent to sell or cause to be sold for profit or used to
promote the sale of any product, such article on which sounds are so transferred
without the consent of the owner, shall be guilty of a Class D felony. Each
individual manufacture of such recorded article shall constitute a separate offense.
"Owner," for purposes of this section, means the person who owns the original
fixation of sounds embodied in the master phonograph record, master disc, master
tape, master film, or other device used for reproducing sounds on phonograph
records, discs, tapes, films, or other articles upon which sound is recorded and from
which the transferred recorded sounds are directly derived.
Any person who knowingly transfers or causes to be transferred to any phonograph
record, disc, wire, tape, film, or other article, any performance, whether live before
an audience or transmitted by wire or through the air by radio or television, with the
intent to sell or cause to be sold for profit or used to promote the sale of any
product, such article onto which such performance is or distributes, causes the
distribution of, or possesses for one (1) or more of these purposes, to be transferred
without the consent of the performer, shall be fined not less than five hundred
dollars ($500) nor more than three thousand dollars ($3,000) or confined in the
penitentiary for not less than one (1) year nor more than five (5) years, or both. Each
individual transfer or manufacture of such recorded article shall constitute a
separate offense. For purposes of this section, a person who is authorized to
maintain custody and control over business records that reflect whether or not the
owner of the live performance consented to having the live performance recorded or
fixed is a proper witness in a proceeding regarding the issue of consent.
Any person who knowingly, or with reasonable grounds to know, advertises or
offers for sale or resale, or sells or resells, or as a renter, rents or causes the rental
of, or distributes or possesses for such purposes any sound recording manufactured
without the consent of the owner, as defined in subsection (1) of this section, or any
sound recording manufactured without the consent of the performer shall, be guilty
of a Class D felony. Possession of five (5) or more duplicate copies or twenty (20)
or more individual copies of such recorded articles, produced without the consent of
the owner, shall create a rebuttable presumption that such devices are intended for
sale or distribution in violation of this section. Each sale or resale of any such article
shall constitute a separate offense.
Any person who knowingly sells or distributes, offers to sell or distribute, possesses
for the purpose of sale or distribution any phonograph record, disc, wire, tape, film,
or other article now known or later developed on which sounds, images, or both
sounds and images have been transferred unless such phonograph record, disc, wire,
tape, film, or other article bears the true name and address of the transferor of the
sounds and the name of the actual performer or group in a prominent place on its
packaging shall be guilty of a Class D felony. Each sale or distribution of any such
(5)
(6)
article shall constitute a separate offense.
This section does not apply to any person who transfers or causes to be transferred
any such sounds or images intended for or in connection with radio or television
broadcast or cable transmission or related uses, or for archival purposes, or solely
for the personal use of the person transferring or causing the transfer and without
any compensation being derived by the person from the transfer.
It shall be the duty of all peace officers within the Commonwealth of Kentucky and
the Department of Kentucky State Police upon discovery to confiscate the recorded
devices produced in violation of this section. Any recorded device produced in
violation of this section, which has come into the custody of a peace officer, shall be
forfeited and destroyed by the court having jurisdiction. A record of the place where
said recorded devices were seized, the kinds and quantities of recorded devices so
destroyed, and of the time, place, and manner of the destruction, shall be kept.
Effective: June 26, 2007
History: Amended 2007 Ky. Acts ch. 85, sec. 317, effective June 26, 2007. -- Amended
1992 Ky. Acts ch. 108, sec. 1, effective July 14, 1992. -- Amended 1978 Ky. Acts
ch. 321, sec. 2, effective June 17, 1978. -- Created 1974 Ky. Acts ch. 120, sec. 1.
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