They are playing my song

The episode revolving SP Balasubrahmanyam and music director Ilaiyaraja, where the latter sent a legal notice to the playback singer for performing his compositions during concerts without his permission, raises the question of who owns the music finally. 

Lyricist Madan Karky in an elaborate Facebook post said, “Seen with the lens of law, what Raja sir did is right. A song is owned by the composer, lyricist and producer. Seeing with the eyes of friendship, it doesn’t seem right. A call instead of a legal notice may have sorted things smoothly. Whenever a song is played or performed outside a cinema hall, for public, royalties for that song will be collected and distributed to composer, lyricist and producer.” 

He even talked about Royalty societies like The Indian Performing Right Society Limited. He goes on to say, “Royalty societies IPRS will collect such royalties and distribute. Even if Raja sir has not permitted an organisation like IPRS to manage his royalties, and is managing by himself, he still does not own the song completely. Even if Raja sir is performing in a public event, the royalties for those songs should go to the respective lyricists and producers also. If the writers or producers send a legal notice to him, he will not be able to perform the songs without their prior permission.” 

He also said that he was happy that the musical maestro took this issue to a bigger stage, even if it is bitter to many, so the industry can get together to understand royalties. Further answering the questions posed online about the question of who owns the music, he said, “The money  a producer pays is for theatrical screening only. As royalties are not applicable for movie screenings inside cinema halls. For all other public performance/playing, the producer composer and writer share royalties as 50% 25% and 25% respectively. This is  in accordance with Copyright Act amendment of 2012.” 

Legal leg 

When looked at it legally, Ilaiyaraja’s claim holds ground. Advocate Swaroop Mamidipudi, explains, “The composer of the song owns the notations, arrangements and the tunes of the song, which is called the musical work. The second aspect is the sound recording where the song for the move or the album is owned by the music label. Music labels may buy the final product but the composition will be stilled owned by the composer. Here the singer owns nothing and to perform the songs by other composers, the singer needs to seek permission from the composer and also pay royalty to perform. Also for live performances, the performer will have to seek consent from the composer as he or she owns the musical work.” 

Last year, Ilaiyaraja warned radio stations and television channels of legal action if they  played his compositions without his consent. Music show organisers who have musicians and singers perform the composition of other artistes, pay the royalty to the Indian Performing Right Society that issues licences to users of music and collect Royalties on behalf of composers. Lakshmi Raghavan, an event organiser, who conducts retro musical events in the city, says, “We get the license from the IPRS along with the No Objection Certificate. It is a standard fee that varies with the size of the audience.” However, after the body came under the scanner for allegations of discrepancies, the Delhi High Court  restrained IPRS from giving licenses as they did not register themselves again post the amendment to the Copyright Act in 2012. 

SA Rajkumar, Member of IPRS and composer points out, “The point made by Ilaiyaraja sir is true and factual. The copyrights issue is not something that has cropped up with Ilaiyaraja-SPB tussle. It has been happening for a long time now. People like me and Javed Akhtar have been fighting for a long time with the central government to pass a Bill on this. Apart from copy rights, composers like us also own intellectual rights. 25 per cent of the share goes to the composer as it is his brainchild. The rest 75 per cent is shared among the producer, lyricist and the music company. The Indian Performance Rights Society (IPRS) is the governing body for these issues which has been fighting for some time. I hope that proper attention is paid to this issue.” 

This is not the first time that the questions have been raised by composers over copyrights. GV Prakash says, “People have woken up to this issue only now. Composers and even lyricists have been fighting for this cause for a long time now. I have voiced out for this issues on social media for a few years. This is not a small issue and has to be handled with some proper care. There are people like Javed Akhtar and Sanjay from IPRS who have been taking this issue with the government. Unfortunately, nothing has been done so far. Hope they provide us with a solution in the near future.” 

I wouldn’t want to talk about what law states. Being a human, I want to say that, we are here to entertain people. One classic example is, numerous actors enact  Rajini’s punch dialogue. Do they get his approval? When a SPB or Chitra or KJ Yesudas sing Amma Yendru Azhaikaadha for people, a song they love, why would they need Ilaiyaraja’s permission? I again say that when we are here to entertain people, we shouldn’t be selfish and enjoy rights for the work we have done. Cinema and music have gone global and it should be like that. So, what Ilaiyaraja has done is a shameful deed. The next step is, we will work to eradicate such laws for the people to be happy and for singers not to restrain themselves.