Copyright issue gets louder at live concerts

Kanu Sarda l New Delhi

In an attempt to protect the interest of music composers and authors, the Delhi high court has ruled that playing music of other composers in live concerts and at disc jockey (DJ) nights in clubs, hotels and restaurants is illegal and an infringement on the Copyright Act. Justice VK Jain, while slapping a penalty of Rs 5 lakh on Ad Venture Communication India for using certain tracks in its live concert, said, “The company exploited the work in which copyright is held by the plaintiff, for their commercial advantage and to the detriment of the authors and composers of the works. As far as grant of damages is concerned, the live performance in an event organised on a commercial basis by selling tickets needs to be treated differently from the live performance say in a family function.” “A soft view, while awarding damages against a person infringing copyrights of the others to earn unlawful profits by organising live events, would be wholly misplaced and uncalled for. If the damages awarded against such persons are token in nature and do not pinch the infringer, that would only encourage the infringer to repeat such acts in future at the cost of some other copyright holder,” the court said. The order came on a petition filed by the Indian Performing Right Society complaining about the copyright infringement by the company at its live concerts and at DJ nights. “Being a live performance of the music played at the live concert, permission from the author and composer was necessarily required before undertaking any such performance,” the court ruled adding that it shall be obligatory for the defendant to ensure that no copyright of the plaintiff-company is infringed in any event organised by it by way of live performance. “The court needs to take note of the fact that a lot of energy and resources are spent in litigating against those who infringe the trademark and copyright of others and try to encash upon the goodwill and reputation of other brands by passing of their goods and/or services as those of that well known brand,” the court observed while noting that the company who organised the live concert had sold tickets of the event for Rs 500 each. Source:::::  DNA, 27-09-2012, p.09. http://epaper.dnaindia.com/story.aspx?id=27977&boxid=15228&ed_date=2012-9-27&ed_code=820009&ed_page=9