Fine for Playing Music without License in India

NIGHT CLUB OWNER BOOKED FOR PLAYING MUSIC SANS LICENSE

Recognition of international standards of copyright protection and incentives for intellectual property have helped India jump eight places to 36th position on the International Intellectual Property (IP) Index, the highest gain for any country this year. People are becoming more aware about their intellectual property rights with each passing day. Intellectual Property Rights are legal rights granted to a person for his work that includes his invention of creative designs, literary works, symbols, or phrases for a fixed duration of time. Copyright is one of the Intellectual Property Rights.The owners of the copyright have certain exclusive rights which enable them to use their property without disturbance and to prevent the misuse of their property. Copyright comes with a bundle of rights that include rights of reproduction, communication to the public, adaptation, and translation of the work. The term ‘copyright’ is not defined in the Copyright Act, 1957 and in general terms, it means the “right to copy” is available only at the discretion of the owner.

Use of any copyrighted work without the permission of the owner amounts to copyright infringement. Infringement occurs when a person intentionally or unintentionally copies/uses the work of another without credit. Infringement is usually classified into two categories- primary infringement and secondary infringement.

Recently in Sector 26, Chandigarh owner of a club was booked for playing music at his club without proper copyright license. Kuldeep Gupta who is the director of director of Red Chilly Foods Private Limited and owner of night club Qizo was allegedly held responsible for playing music at his club, the copyright of which was held with the Phonographic Performance Limited which is a copyright Society and the night club didn’t procure a license for the same. The owner was booked on the complaint of one Sandeep Singh when a raid was conducted by the police and it was found that the music was being played without license. As per the police, any person planning to play music at clubs and night clubs will have to take a license from the PPL.

According to the club owner, “The matter is sub judice as the court has granted a stay.” Earlier also Phonographic Performance Limited had moved to various district courts in Chandigarh, seeking directions against various hotels, restaurants and lounge bars, who have not applied for the mandatory license as per law under the Copyright Act, 1957. One of the applications moved by the Phonographic Performance Limited was dismissed on the grounds of not holding any merit.

Rest for case specific advice, one can contact top/best expert Copyright Trademark Lawyer Advocate in Chandigarh Panchkula Mohali.

This post is written by Abhay Tripathi. For more, dial 99888-17966.