AUDIO-VIDEO PERFORMANCE LICENSE

AVPL licenses to be obtained by those who does “Communication to the Public” which primarily are – hotels, restaurants, establishments, broadcasting organisations, cable operators, OTT platforms, airports, clubs, exhibition/event venues, lounges, housing societies, tourist transport operators, public park authorities, malls, shopping centres, resorts, stadiums, hospitals etc. and / or such similar avenues in connection to Audio-Video public performance rights on communication to public.

Public Performance refers to performance of VIDEO (Cinematograph Film work ) and AUDIO (Sound Recording work ) by “communication to the public” for enjoyment and entertainment.

• Section 2(ff) of Copyright Act 1957 interprets , “Communication to the public” , means making any work or performance available for being seen or heard or otherwise enjoyed by the public directly or by any means of display or diffusion other than by issuing physical copies of it, whether a simultaneously or at places and times chosen individually, regardless of whether any member of the public actually sees, hears or otherwise enjoys the work or performance so made available.
• Explanation.–For the purposes of this clause, communication through satellite or cable or any other means of simultaneous communication to more than one household or place of residence including residential rooms of any hotel or hostel shall be deemed to be communication to the public.

• Technically, it’s a prelude and initiative towards Single window system of Public Performance Licensing by combining Cinematograph Film work and Sound recording works as endeavoured by the Ministry of Commerce and Industries, DPIIT, Copyright Division, New Delhi , but for having only one single copyright society in India of Video and Audio works, wherein all the existing Copyright Companies / Societies (registered by Central Government or unregistered entities, as the case may be ) to join together with all the works of all the Producers across the country for two distinct Works ( Cinematograph Film & Sound Recording Work) as defined under the Copyright Act 1957, it requires legislative amendment and /or notifications , as deemed appropriate.

• From the bundle of Copyright, available with the Producer / Owner , pursuant to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1957 r/w Copyright Rules with amendments thereof , if any , the assignment by the PRODUCER to AVPL is ONLY for the “Public Performance Rights” on communication to public of Cinematograph Film (VIDEO) and Sound Recording (AUDIO) works . Thus, except the “Public Performance Rights” on communication to public of Cinematograph Film (VIDEO) and Sound Recording (AUDIO) works , all other standalone rights are fully retained by the Assignor (Producer). Therefore , to commercially deal with the Negative rights, Theatrical, terrestrial, Satellite, video, cable, digital or internet rights etc, only the Producer has the sole prerogative and not by AVPL, unless mutually agreed in writing by Producer and AVPL, on case to case basis under separate agreement.

• Collection of Audio-Video royalties of Public Performance Rights from public establishments are additional revenues for Producers which are not collected explicitly from Pan- India. Thus, AVPL has taken the initiative to accelerate the untapped territories in India and Overseas for collection of Audio-Video Public Performance rights for the benefit of the Producers and Owners.

• AVPL has numerous assigned contents of Audio – Video catalogues of different owners , across all the regions of India , on public performance rights for communicating to the public by any means not limited to electronic or digital displays and / or diffusion , which are promptly displayed at the website under the head “Contents”.

• AVPL public performance license fees are derived after earnest deliberations by the Tariff Committee , essentially considering the prevailing market competition endeavoured to give the best economical rates convenience to the licensees.

• There are Three different Public Performance licenses , which are distinct and separate.

– Annual License : Issued on yearly basis for Audio- Video communication by the establishments.

– Event License : Specific to that event which gets exhausted on the conclusion of that particular event.

– Charity License : are those which are issued to body corporates who are in benevolent / philanthropy or social causes , subject to prior approval by AVPL’s Committee.

Yes, besides for Hindi contents , its absolutely necessary to obtain AVPL license for Regional contents also because the assigned Audio/Video contents by the Owners for collecting Public Performance Rights are from all the regions across the country viz: Punjabi, Bhojpuri , Marathi, Gujrati , Bengali , Oriya , Tamil, Telugu, Kannada , Malayalam etc.

AVPL license permits for those contents which belong to AVPL, which have been assigned by the Audio- Video content owners and the same have been listed on our website categorically.

Please note that – the cable connections , Amazon stick etc are for “personal viewing” and not for communication to PUBLIC . Once the TV sets or LCD Screen or any display machines are installed for PUBLIC VIEWING , it’s statutorily considered as “COMMUNICATION TO PUBLIC. Please refer above for definitions of “Communication to Public” . Explanation given under Section 2(ff) of Copyright Act 1957 categorically covers that – communication through satellite or cable or any other means of simultaneous communication to more than one household or place of residence including residential rooms of any hotel or hostel shall be deemed to be communication to the public.

Let’s make it very simple that , downloading the music and film by paying to the platforms / paid the money to DJ Band etc for playing the music and video , is only for your Personal viewing and not for Public consumption. Please note that , the moment the Audio-Video contents are displayed to Public by any diffusion by DJ or any person , obtaining AVPL license becomes mandatory to protect the contents of legitimate Owners who have assigned the public performance rights to AVPL.

Yes, this can be customised with our Licensing Executive, subject to how many events are planned in year by your establishment and accordingly License fees can be determined as per the Tariff plan.

Yes , AVPL Annual license can be issued for more than one year and for this you have to deliberate with our Licensing Executives to customise the Tariff plan.

The distribution scheme is finalised by the Committee of Owners / Producers of AudioVideo contents and it’s represented by the Producers from all regions. Importantly, broad policy with utmost transparency shall be decided on the license fees collected from logged and unlogged contents vis-a- vis the categorisation done by the said Committee on the contents of Super hit , Hit , average etc, as the case may be , which shall be critically driven by specialised software on blockchain technology.

As on date , AVPL has not signed with any International label or producers , however we endeavour to provide Non- copyright Audio contents of International songs in different genres, FREE OF COST to AVPL Licensees as specialised service.

We earnestly appeal to all the individuals and establishments to obtain the requisite license from AVPL, failing which , it tantamount to infringement pursuant to Section 51 , read with Section 63 of Copyright Act 1957 which are Cognizable and non-bailable, as deem proper , strictly in accordance to the law.