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Copyright Violation in the Indian Music Industry: Laws and Cases

We all have diverse rights and obligations toward one another, as stated in the Indian Constitution, and the Copyright Act of 1957 protects an individual's labour. We've all seen or heard musical and artistic productions that were.

Introduction
Copyright refers to the owner's sole ownership of their artistic, theatrical, musical, audio-visual, or literary creations. It prevents unlawful reproduction of the owner's creation. A musical work is a composition that combines music with graphical notations or a graphic score that uses symbols to express music. The composer created any musical composition. Like musical works, voice recordings and songs sung by anyone, with or without music, such as any audio or any podcast, are also protected by copyright.

Evolution of copyrights

To address the music and film industries' progress and remove the act's outdated provisions, the Copyright Law was modified in 2012. By including provisos 2 and 3 under section 18, which stated that an author of a literary or musical work that is included in a cinematographic film shall not assign or relinquish his rights to receive royalties for the utilisation of the work, it rendered such contracts null and void that could result in propagation or reproduction of work originally protected under the copyright law. Because the entertainment industry relies on contractual relationships between various stakeholders, problems can arise when a maze of contracts results in overlapping or conjoined rights. If the law is strictly applied, it is crystal clear and makes it easy to avoid any exploitation or infringement of original work.

The Indian music business has experienced a flood of copyright violations due to the replication of tunes. Any combination of melody and harmony, or either of them, printed, reduced to text, or otherwise visually produced or reproduced, was initially deemed a "musical work" by the Copyright Act, of 1957 Act. This definition eliminates the rights of the singer and the lyricist by excluding the presence of lyrics and voice as components of a "musical production."

There is a need to amend the copyright law to make it more applicable to the age of remixes and serve the needs of both the owner or composer of the original song and the maker of the remix version of that song. In general, copyright protection for every original work of an author is life plus 60 years after his or her death, and Section 51 of the Copyright Act governs copyright protection. It should highlight the value of technology and offer suggestions for an appropriate legislative licencing structure, coupled with an accurate determination of the amount to be paid in royalties.

Section 51 of the Act states that any violation of the owner of the copyright's rights must be recorded as an infringement. However, it won't be considered an infringement A person may copy any type of work—musical, artistic, or otherwise—by notifying the owner of the original work in advance and paying a royalty in advance. Ahead of time, royalties are given to the creator, just like when remixing music.

Case laws
The song "Genda Phool," a remake of "Boroloker Biti Lo," by artist Badshah, recently sparked controversy over one of its lyrics. The line is followed by around 0:44 to 1:17 minutes of pure musical score, repeated twice. The words to the song "Boroloker Biti Lo" were written in 1972 by Ratan Kahar while he was a member of the organisation Anan Gosthi, according to the documentary "Ratan Kahar-The Forgotten Gem," although neither Ratan Kahar nor his work is mentioned in the song description that is available on YouTube.

The choir sang this well-known tune. It is also known that his tune may have been used numerous times without being given credit. Swapna Chakraborty, a well-known performer of Bengali folk music, initially modified the song "Boroloker Biti Lo" in 1976 and went on to popularise it. However, Kahar was also not given any recognition at the time. The issue at hand is whether Ratan Kahar was the song's original creator and what aspects of the Copyright Act apply to the most recent piece, "Genda Phool."

Conclusion
There is a need to amend the copyright law to make it more applicable to the age of remixes and serve the needs of both the owner or composer of the original song and the maker of the remix version of that song. In general, the copyright protection for every original work of an author is life plus 60 years after his or her death, and Section 51 of the Copyright Act governs copyright protection. A suitable determination of the amount to be paid in royalties as well as solutions for a proper statutory licencing system should be included. It should also recognise the importance of technology.

To address the music and film industries' progress and remove the act's outdated provisions, the Copyright Law was modified in 2012. By including provisos 2 and 3 under section 18, which stated that an author of a literary or musical work that is included in a cinematographic film shall not assign or relinquish his rights to receive royalties for the utilisation of the work, it rendered such contracts null and void that could result in propagation or reproduction of work originally protected under the copyright law. Some of the most well-known musicians have found a home in the Indian music industry, which has been in the process of developing.

However, because of the structural inequalities in the industry, the producers or music labels, rather than the artists who made the music, are always in the spotlight instead of them since they don't appear to care about giving credit where credit is due. The original inventor must receive a fair share of the money made from the artist's recreation of their original work.

Written By: Ashok Kumar Choudhary - Indore Institute Of Law

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