Article
A legal tussle of music rights
By Godhuli Nanda
The article in this issue of IPR Amicus discusses elaborately a recent decision of the Delhi High Court on the question as to whether the communication of a sound recording to the public also amounts to communication of the literary and musical works embodied in the sound recording to the public. Observing that a sound recording is not the sum total of lyrics and musical works only, the Court held that the sound recording is something more. It was of the view that neither the owner of the copyright in the literary work nor the owner of the copyright in the musical works has any claim or right in the sound recording which is a work of joint authorship within the meaning of Section 2(z) of the Copyright Act, 1957 and is a distinct work produced by the collaboration of two or more authors. It was also held that the 2012 amendment in Section 19(10) of the Copyright Act was not retrospective in nature. Dismissing the suit brought by the Indian Performing Right Society (‘IPRS’), it observed that exploitation by the Defendant was admittedly only of sound recordings forming part of cinematograph films through radio broadcast. However, in another suit which involved live performances of musical/lyrical works through other artists, it was held that exploitation was not of the sound recording but of the underlying works and license from IPRS was necessary...
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