The copyright performance of a play was a first public performance in the United Kingdom, staged purely for the purpose of securing the author's copyright over the text. There was a fear that, if a play's text was published, or a rival production staged, before its official preview or premiere, then the author's rights would be lost; to forestall these abuses, the practice arose of staging a copyright performance, which was notionally public, but in practice staged hastily before an invited audience with no publicity and no regard for the artistic quality of the acting or production.
A play's copyright was secured through a first public performance in the UK, designed to protect the author's rights from unauthorized publication or staging before its official premiere. This practice involved hastily organizing a show for an invited audience with minimal publicity and no focus on artistic quality.