The hotels and pubs in Goa recently had to face the music for
not following the norms of Copyright Act.
Novex communications, a company which is
the copyright owner of a large number of sound recordings of established music
labels like Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, Eros International Media, Tips
Industries Ltd, Red Ribbon Entertainment Private Ltd, SPI Music Private Ltd,
Third Culture Entertainment Private Ltd and authorised agent of Yash Raj Films
Private Limited, Ranga has filed police complaint against commercial entities
which were found violating the copyright norms.
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It has also issued notices to these
establishments which have been allegedly found violating the law. According to
the Copyright Act, all commercial establishments need to take a license from
the authorised entity to play the songs of music labels who own the rights.
Spokesperson of Novex Communications Ketan
Ranga said, “We request all the pubs, discos, hotels and other commercial
premise to respect the Copyright Act. One needs to obtain license to play music
for commercial purpose. We always send letters, reminders and notices to all
those who are not abiding the copyright laws.”
Adding that the said the issue of music copyright violation is
becoming prominent these days, he appealed that intellectual property (music in
this case) should be used for commercial purposes by acquiring the licence in
order to avoid any unpleasant action being taken against their pubs, discos or
hotels.
“All the songs of these music labels played by commercial
premises need to take the license from Novex communications. Music Copyright
Act forbids people from exploiting the intellectual property of music
creators,” he said.
Narrating the recent incident of violation, the official said,
“Recently three pubs from Goa were booked under the charges of music copyright
violation for infringing copyrights and claiming damages to the music creator’s
Intellectual property. The pubs had not taken the necessary license required to
play music at a commercial premise and therefore the Directors and Managers of
these pubs and lounge bars were charged under section 63, 69 and 51 of
Copyright Act,” the official added.
According to him, his company takes necessary steps to create
awareness so that the Music Copyright Act is not violated.
“Our company sends a letter or the notice to convey the message
to all the pubs, bars, hotels, lounges and discos as a reminder to issue the
license to play the copyrighted music for commercial purpose,” he said.
Explaining briefly about how the Indian Performing Right Society
Limited (IPRS) functions, the official of IPRS said, “The Indian Performing
Right Society Limited is a copyright society registered by the Central
Government to legitimize the use of copyrighted music by issuing licenses and
collecting royalties from music users, for and on behalf of music authors,
composers and without his/her permission.
IPRS is the copyright society in Goa which is authorised to
issue licenses on behalf of musical works and has sole right to take legal
action against the infringer.
Despite all this, the infringement of Copyright Act is still
happening and the commercial establishments are facing the heat. So, the
question is why these hotels and pubs don’t follow the norms?
DJ Rinton Dsouza said, “Couple of years back the music copyright
company used to get in touch with the DJs and tell us about the music copyright
licence to be issued when playing music in hotels, pubs or resorts. Since past
few years I have not encountered any of the companies approaching to create
such awareness.”
Rinton said he has not faced any legal issues personally as in
his case, the organisers apply the license on behalf of the DJs.
“If in case organisers fail to apply for the license, the
respective hotels are reminded that the music copyright licence needs to be
issued,” he said.
Rinton added saying it is very difficult to curb the piracy but
as a solution to reduce the number of such cases, a person should be deputed
specially to handle the copyright and awareness related issues.
Gaurav
Apte, General Manager, Goa Marriott Resort and Spa said the resort is aware
about the Music Copyright Act and the penalty they have to pay in case of its
infringement. The Marriott resort has never been caught up in any such music copyright violation
incident.
DJ Navin Rodrigues from Margao said he has not faced any issue
of music copyright violation since he majorly plays retro, hip-hop and those
involving copyright material.
“I am aware that those who are playing Bollywood songs are
played, should acquire Music Copyright license in order to avoid violating the
Music Copyright Act,” he said.
While there are legal issues regarding playing Hindi film songs
without acquiring license, but the DJs can’t really play a local Konkani music
track in the hotels, pubs or discos which have majority of the visiting
customers are domestic or international tourists.
According to Navin, the international visitors do not understand
the local language and therefore fail to enjoy the local track. Playing local
music track to boost the local language or to avoid the Music Copyright
violation is not at all the solution to resolve the issue of Music copyright
Act violation, he added.
“People across the globe download songs from the internet for
free of cost without paying any royalty to the owner of music creator, which
though is wrong, cannot be controlled,” he said.
“Receiving
royalty for one’s creation is his or her due right and therefore those playing
the track for commercial purpose should make sure that a proper music copyright
license is taken,” he said.
