Royalty issue: Top musicians express displeasure over HC order

Highlights

• Expressing their displeasure over the recent High Court verdict on the royalty issue, several leading music composers and lyricists voiced their woes.
• Last week, the Bombay High Court said that Indian Performing Right Society Limited (IPRS) that safeguards the copyright of music composers and lyricists is not entitled to claim or demand royalty or license fees from FM Radio channels for the songs and music they broadcast.
• This means that the FM stations would now have to only deal with Phonographic Performances Limited for obtaining a licence to play the music.
• "The radio fraternity has throughout been telling us that they would love paying composers and lyricists' royalty. But now it is revealed that the stand taken by them in the court is exactly opposite. This is indeed like stabbing us," veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar told reporters.
• "The verdict appears to be contradictory to the provisions of the present Indian Copyright Act and is also incompatible and in gross violation of India's obligations under international treaties like the TRIPS and the Berne Convention. If India does not recognise the right of composers and songwriters it could well face an international backlash since copyright is no more a local matter....it has become an International issue," Akhtar added.
• Music composer Lalit Pandit said, "Both the radio industry and music companies have let us down. We feel cheated and will now formulate our stand on how to deal with both of them."
• Ram Sampath, composer and singer of the hit song D K Bose from Delhi Belly, also voiced his concern by drawing differences between the corporate and the film world.
• "It is sad and worrying that while the corporate world has been recognising the IPR (intellectual property rights) of the composer or songwriter, the film world just doesn't seem to be bothered. And now this judgement would mean death for Indian music," Sampath said.
• Director-singer-composer, Vishal Bharadwaj said there was a need to bring an amendment to the Copyright Act.
• "This only goes to show how vulnerable the community of composers and lyricists are and it is high time that the Parliament got the proposed amendments to the Copyright Act passed. I think that is the only way to protect artists in this country," Bharadwaj said.
• "Except royalties, there is no source of income for composers or songwriters and that is why I had to turn into a producer-director," he said.
• Veteran music director Ravi Shankar Sharma, who sued the makers of Slumdog Millionaire for using his song Darshan Do in the movie, said, "The film Slumdog Millionaire used a piece of one of my old songs after which I took them to court. The producer paid Rs 20 lakhs for the usage. So there is no way in which one can consider that music and lyrics have no copyrights."