Commercial Establishments to pay for background Music (Copyright Royalty)

It is very common in our country to visit a grocery store, a shop of any kind, a barbershop, beauty salon, etc. and find an athmosphere loaded with popular music. But it would be difficult to imagine that same grocery store or beauty salon paying royalty for the use of the music placed for the enjoyment of its clients; however,

Pagar una tarifa por escuchar música en público

Es muy común en nuestro país visitar un colmadón, una tienda, una barbería, en fin, cualquier establecimiento comercial, y encontrarse con un ambiente cargado de música popular. Lo que es difícil de imaginar es que ese mismo colmadón, tienda o barbería pague regalía por el uso de esa música que pone como fondo para el disfrute de sus clientes, sin embargo el pago por ese concepto ha estado contemplado en la ley dominicana desde el año 2000, cuando se promulgó la ley 65-00 sobre Derecho de Autor.

Law on the Protection of Dominican Importers

In the Dominican Republic, the contractual relations between the parties intervening in any distribution agreement between a foreign licensor and a local distributor/importer are under the scope of Law 173, enacted in 1966 and subsequently amended, which establishes extraordinary protection for the local distributor/importer of foreign services and products.

Overview of the Dominican Sources of Law

Dominican law theorists make a fundamental distinction between primary sources of law, which can give rise to binding legal norms, and secondary sources, sometimes called authorities.

A Summary of the Dominican Republic

The island's indigenous inhabitants were the Taino Indians (Arawaks) group and a small settlement of Caribs around the Bahía de Samaná. These Indians, estimated to number perhaps 1 million at the time of their initial contact with Europeans, had died off by the 1550s.