What is “public performance”?
A public performance is the playing of a sound recording or the exhibition of a music video in public (i.e. a non-domestic environment). Just because a performance is given for free, or the audience is small, or there is no admission fee, or the performance is confined to members of a club, or a limited area, it does not mean it is not a public performance.
To perform or display a work “publicly” means– • to perform or display it at a place open to the public or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered; • to transmit or otherwise communicate a performance or display of the work to a place specified by clause (1) or to the public, by means of any device or process, whether the members of the public capable of receiving the performance or display receive it in the same place or in separate places and at the same time or at different times. (Title 17, U.S.C., Copyrights, Section 101, Definitions) 9.
