[cr-india] FM radio, music industry out of tune on royalty

[sajan venniyoor]

On 12/16/08, Arti Jaiman <arti at trfindia.org> wrote:

> Since we work with children, some of them wanted to go on air on their CR
> singing their favourite Hindi movie songs. Where do we stand on the
> copyright front there? Is this acceptable to air?
>
> This is an IPRS issue (as in Indian Performing Rights, not Intellectual
Property Rights), and according to the Society, your children have the right
to sing their favourite movie songs without payment only if the lyricist has
been dead for 60 years, otherwise "you must first obtain permission from him
or from whoever owns the copyright in the composition."

I am pretty sure your kids don't have any 60 year old favourite songs.

It is widely believed that IPRS rights extend only to music performances in
public places (auditoria, restaurants etc), and not to broadcasting. Many
broadcasters (including AIR, I'm told) don't recognize the right of IPRS to
extort money -- ostensibly on behalf of composers and lyricists -- and the
India Today group in fact took IPRS to court and obtained a stay.

The ignorance on this subject, especially in government circles, is
vast.And it isn't helped by the fact that music royalties and related
copyright
issues are administered by the Department of Secondary and Higher Education.

Sajan

On 12/16/08, Arti Jaiman <arti at trfindia.org> wrote:
>
>  I have a question relating to the lyrics and sound rights you have
> mentioned.
>
> Since we work with children, some of them wanted to go on air on their CR
> singing their favourite Hindi movie songs. Where do we stand on the
> copyright front there? Is this acceptable to air?
>
> Thanks
>
> Arti
>
> Arti Jaiman Project Manager: TRF Radio arti at trfindia.org www.trfindia.org
> www.jaiman.org www.pitara.com
>
> --- On *Tue, 16/12/08, Frederick Noronha [फ़रेद <fred at bytesforall.org>*wrote:
>
> From: Frederick Noronha [फ़रेद <fred at bytesforall.org>
> Subject: [cr-india] FM radio, music industry out of tune on royalty
> To: "CR India" <cr-india at sarai.net>
> Date: Tuesday, 16 December, 2008, 5:11 PM
>
> FM
>  radio, music industry out of tune on royalty
> Ashish Sinha / New Delhi December 16, 2008, 0:00 IST
>
> Matter to come before copyright board on January 28.
>
> The battle between music companies and FM radio channels over royalty
>
> payments has come out in the open with last-minute mediation by the
> Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) failing to break the
> deadlock.
>
> Music companies, already fighting rampant piracy, are demanding a
>
> doubling of music royalty fees (from the current Rs 660 per hour of
> music played) that FM radio firms pay.
>
> They have also demanded that radio channels treat sound recording
> rights and rights in musical lyrical works (tunes are copied by radio)
>
> as two separate sets of rights and playing them without a licence
> would amount to copyright infringement.
>
> India's 250-plus FM radio stations across 90 towns, represented by the
> Association of Radio Operators in India
>
>  (AROI), pay royalty to the
> Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL), which represents 160 music
> companies like Saregama India, Sony BMG Music, Universal Music, Tips
> Industries, Venus Records & Tapes and others.
>
>
> AROI said the current formula means that FM radio operators end up
> paying 15 to 50 per cent of their annual revenue as music royalty
> fees, significantly above global benchmarks of 2 to 3 per cent.
>
> Overall, the industry earns annual revenues of Rs 550 crore of which
>
> about Rs 100 crore is paid as music royalty.
>
> Sources said AROI may propose possible solutions like the royalty fee
> payment based on population of a city, genre of music played by the
> stations and fees based on 2 to 4 per cent of the annual revenue the
>
> stations generate.
>
> "The I&B ministry wanted both sides to talk and reach some sort of an
> understanding on music royalty fees. But that did not happen," said
> Apurva Purohit,
>  president, AROI, and CEO, Radio City 91.1 FM.
>
>
> "Now the matter will be heard by the Copyright Board on January 28
> where individual radio companies will present their case," she added.
>
> The Rs 750-crore music industry is also demanding action against about
>
> 100 FM stations, saying they have gone on air without taking licences
> from the music societies or from the individual copyright owners,
> violating music copyrights.
>
> "The music industry firmly believes that the government should not
>
> support such violators of copyrights and must take action to support
> the music industry survive in these difficult days," says a senior
> executive of Indian Music Industry (IMI).
>
> --
> FN * Independent Journalist http://fn.goa-india.org
>
> Blog: http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com
> Tech links from South Asia: http://twitter.com/fn
>
> M: +91-9822122436 P:
>  +91-832-2409490
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