Article 5.

Sale of Phonograph Records or Electrical Transcriptions.

§ 66‑28.  Prohibition of rights to further restrict or to collect royalties on commercial use.

When any phonograph record or electrical transcription, upon which musical performances are embodied, is sold in commerce for use within this State, all asserted common‑law rights to further restrict or to collect royalties on the commercial use made of such recorded performances by any person is hereby abrogated and expressly repealed.  When such article or chattel has been sold in commerce, any asserted intangible rights shall be deemed to have passed to the purchaser upon the purchase of the chattel itself, and the right to further restrict the use made of phonograph records or electrical transcriptions, whose sole value is in their use, is hereby forbidden and abrogated.

Nothing in this section shall be deemed to deny the rights granted any person by the United States copyright laws.  The sole intendment of this enactment is to abolish any common‑law rights attaching to phonograph records and electrical transcriptions, whose sole value is in their use, and to forbid further restrictions of the collection of subsequent fees and royalties on phonograph records and electrical transcriptions by performers who were paid for the initial performance at the recording thereof. (1939, c. 113.)