KRS § 434.445 — KY Code / Title XL / Chapter 434 / Section 434.445
434.445 Unauthorized reproduction and distribution of recorded article or device for sale or rent -- Exemption -- Confiscation and destruction -- Penalties
Status: in_force

434.445 Unauthorized reproduction and distribution of recorded article or device

for sale or rent -- Exemption -- Confiscation and destruction -- Penalties.

(1) 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.

(2) 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.

(3) 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.

(4) 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

article shall constitute a separate offense.

(5) 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.

(6) 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.