Mandarim Records Ltd v Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (Ireland) Ltd

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: Mr. Justice Barr
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1999
• Neutral Citation: [1998] IEHC 146
• Judgment citation (vLex): [1998] 10 JIC 0505
• Court: High Court
• Date: 01 January 1999

(H.C.)

Mandarim Records Ltd

and

Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (Ireland) Ltd

- Statute - Interpretation - Record - Whether Power CDs on which sounds, text, graphics and visual images were recorded constituted records so as to entitle the plaintiff to manufacture pursuant to statutory licence without the need for the copyright owner's permission -Copyright Act, 1963 (No. 10), ss. 2 (1), 13.

1. S. 2(1) of the Copyright Act 1963 defines a 'record' as: any disc, tape, perforated roll or other device in which sounds are embodied so as to be capable (with or without the aid of some other instrument) of being automatically reproduced therefrom, and references to a record of a work or other subject matter are references to a record (as herein defined) by means of which it can be performed. S. 13(1) of the 1963 Act, provides: The copyright in a musical work is not infringed by a person (in this section referred to as the manufacturer) who makes a record of the work, or of an adaptation thereof, in the State, if - (a) records of the work or, as the case may be, of a similar adaptation of the work, have previously been made in or imported into the State for the purposes of retail sale, and were so made or imported by, or with the licence of, the owner of the copyright in the work; (b) before making the record, the manufacturer gave to the owner of the copyright the prescribed notice of his intention to make it; (c) the manufacturer intends to sell the record by retail, or to supply it for the purpose of being sold by retail by another person, or intends to use it for making other records which are to be so sold or supplied; and (d) in the case of a record which is sold by retail, the manufacturer pays to the owner of the copyright, in the prescribed manner and at the prescribed time, a fair royalty. S. 13(4) of the 1963 Act provides: Where a record comprises (with or without other material) a performance of a musical work, or of an adaptation of a musical work, in which words are sung, or are spoken incidentally to or in association with the music, and either no copyright subsists in that work, or if such copyright subsists, the conditions specified in subs. (1) of this section are fulfilled in relation to that copyright, then if - (a) the words consist or form part of a literary or dramatic work in which copyright subsists, and (b) such previous records as are referred to in paragraph (a) of subs. (1) of this section were made or imported by, or...