Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000

Prospective ownership of performers' property rights.

294.—(1) Where, by an agreement made in relation to a performer's property rights in respect of a future performance and signed by or on behalf of the performer, the performer purports to assign his or her rights in such a performance, whether in whole or in part, to another person, then where, on the rights coming into existence, the assignee or his or her successor in title or another person claiming under him or her would be entitled as against all other persons to require the rights to be vested in him or her, the rights shall vest in the assignee or his or her successor in title under this section or any other person claiming under him or her.

(2) Where, at the time when any performer's property right comes into existence, the person who, if he or she were then living, would be entitled to the right is dead, the right shall devolve as if it had existed immediately before his or her death and he or she had then been the owner of the right.

(3) The rights of an assignee in a future performance shall not be prejudiced by the fact that the agreement referred to in subsection (1) was made before the commencement of this section.

(4) In this Part—

“future performance” means any performance which will or may take place at some date in the future;

“prospective owner”, in relation to a performer's property rights, includes a person who is prospectively entitled to those rights by virtue of an agreement referred to in subsection (1).