Copyright Act (Revised 2020)

Summary

This is the British Virgin Islands' Copyright Act, a general law dating originally from 1956 (based on the UK Copyright Act 1956) and consolidated in this revised edition as at 1 January 2020. It is not a financial services regulatory instrument issued by the FSC but a piece of general legislation defining copyright protection, ownership, infringement and remedies within the Virgin Islands.

• Scope of protection: Establishes copyright in original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, sound recordings, cinematograph films, broadcasts and published editions, and sets duration of copyright (generally 50 years from the author's death or first publication, depending on category).
• Ownership rules: Sets default ownership rules for employees, commissioned works (e.g. commissioned photographs and portraits), and works made in the course of employment, subject to contrary agreement.
• Infringement and remedies: Defines acts restricted by copyright (reproduction, publication, performance, broadcasting, adaptation, importation and sale of infringing copies) and gives copyright owners civil remedies, including actions for damages and orders regarding infringing copies.
• Criminal penalties: Creates summary offences and penalties for dealings in infringing copies and provides for restricting importation of infringing printed copies through Customs.
• Performing Right Tribunal: Establishes a Performing Right Tribunal with jurisdiction to review licence schemes and applications relating to performing rights and broadcast diffusion.
• Related amendments and exceptions: Amends the Registered Designs Act 1949 and the Dramatic and Musical Performers' Protection Act 1925, and sets out exceptions for libraries, archives, education, public records and Crown use.

The Act applies generally to authors, publishers, broadcasters, performers, importers and members of the public dealing with copyright works, rather than to a specific class of FSC-licensed financial entities. It imposes no periodic filing or reporting obligations on regulated financial institutions; instead it creates enduring civil and criminal law protections and liabilities around the use of copyrighted material.

Key obligations

• Persons dealing with copyright works (reproducing, publishing, performing, broadcasting, adapting, importing or selling copies) must have the licence of the copyright owner or risk civil liability and, in specified cases, criminal penalties.
• Importers and sellers of articles must not deal in copies they know (or should know) to be infringing copies of a protected work.
• Persons permitting a place of public entertainment to be used for a performance must take reasonable care that the performance does not infringe copyright, or risk liability unless statutory defences apply.
• Parties seeking to operate licence schemes for performing rights must comply with references and determinations of the Performing Right Tribunal.

Applies to

authors and creators, publishers, broadcasters (television and sound), performers, copyright owners and licensees, importers and sellers of copies of protected works, libraries and archives, educational institutions