Saturday 9 April 2016

Under Copyright Act singers demands royalty from IPL-T20


INDIAN SINGERS' RIGHTS ASSOCIATION (ISRA) FILES INFRINGEMENT SUIT AGAINST ALL IPL TEAM FRANCHISEES EXCEPT DELHI DAREDEVILS

DELHI HIGH COURTS GRANTS AN INJUNCTION AGAINST MUMBAI INDIANS, KOLKATTA KNIGHT RIDERS, SUNRISERS HYDERABAD, ROYAL CHALLENGERS, KINGS PUNJAB XI, PUNE WARRIORS, GUJARAT LIONS, BCCI AND DNA NETWORKS RESTRAINING THEM FROM USING/EXPLOITING THE PERFORMANCES OF THE SINGERS IN THE STADIUM DURING CRICKET MATCHES WITHOUT OBTAINING THE CLEARANCE FROM ISRA

The Copyright Act which was amended in June 2012 unanimously by both Houses of Parliament, afforded to the Singers under Section 39A an entitlement to Royalties from the commercial exploitation of their sung songs whereever played and by whatsoever media or mode. As per the Law, Singers can collect these Royalties through a Performer Society duly registered with the Central Government. Thus, in accordance with the requirement of Law, Singers under the Chairmanship of Ms. Lata Mangeshkar formed The Indian Singer's Rights Association (ISRA) and became the 1st Copyright/Performer Right Society to be registered by the Government of India in June 2013 vide Certificate No. 123344 dated June 2013.

According to the amended Copyright Act, anyone who makes /uses/exploits   any Singer's Performance commercially then that person is required to pay the Singer Royalty. Songs/Performances of the Singers are used and exploited at all matches in the Stadium to cheer the crowds.

After being registered as  Performer (Singer) Society, ISRA sought the Singer's Royalty from IPL Franchisees the IPL 2014 & 2015 Season. But they got away without even responding to the ISRA Claim.

This year the ISRA again started correspondence with BCCI, the 8 Franchisees in October 2015, but again this time around, except Delhi Daredevils who respected the |ISRA clearance, the other 7 Franchisee ignored it and engaged ISRA in negotiations till the last moment with an intention of eluding taking the ISRA clearnce by paying Singers Royalty as per Copyright Act. 
Says Managing Director of ISRA Sanjay Tandon "While it was pleasing to see Delhi Daredevils adhere to their liability to Singers under the Copyright Act and respected the Law of the Land, it is indeed very sad to see the other 7 Franchisees playing an eluding game. We gave them enough time but inspite of this and regular follow ups and full explanations, they decided not to respect and pay the Singer's their Performer Rights Royalties. But at the end they forced us to take legal action to protect the Right to Royalty of the Singers. Matches start from tomorrow and hence we had no option but to go to Court for justice. I am happy that the Court has granted us an Injunction. This will lay an example for all who take copyright very lightly and deny the Artists their rightful Royalties. But ISRA is now the Registered Performer Right Society in India and hence its ISRA's duty to see that people adhere to the law and respect Singers Rights by paying Royalties to ISRA "

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