Licence Pleas

Beware. The next time you listen to a groovy number at a shopping mall or a pub or at the local Durga Puja pandal, you could be charged for it. The Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS) and Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) will be listening in for copyright violations.

The IPRS is already fighting 30 copyright violation cases in the Delhi High Court, and the PPL has served 250 legal notices in the last one year in north India alone. Some big names, like Kwality Restaurants, Delhi's Appu Ghar and the Shipping Corporation of India feature in IPRS' bad books. Ahsan D. Siddiqui, PPL's business development manager, adds to the list: "Indian Railways and UP Roadways are some of the biggest defaulters who haven't paid us even after getting legal notices."

The Rs 600-crore Indian music industry estimates that it loses about Rs 100 crore every year due to unauthorised playing of music. Set up in 1969, the IPRS works in tandem with 202 international collecting societies the world over to ensure that foreign artists get their due and Indian music is protected outside the country. Composers, songwriters and music publishers are a part of this 2,000-member strong organisation. PPL, on the other hand, looks after the interests of the music companies and issues broadcasting, telecasting and public performance rights on behalf of over 50 members. Royalties charged are based on different tariff rates—for instance, a restaurant is charged on the basis of the least-priced drink on its menu. Similarly, for radio stations, IPRS charges a minimum of Rs 750 per hour of broadcast.

But the problem is massive, and the copyright violators innumerable. "In a country like India, there's no limit to copyright violation," says Amit Deb, creative director, Channel V. Many violators, in fact, do not even know that they are breaking any laws. For instance, background music played at fashion shows requires a PPL licence. Fashion choreographer Tanya Lefebvre has no idea of such a licence: "It's required only when the designer himself is creating music." During this year's Malhar festival at Mumbai's St Xavier's, PPL served the college with a legal notice saying it needed a licence to play someone else's work in a public festival. "The authorities replied that there was no such law," says Siddiqui, who then went to court and won the case.

Moreover, even enforcement agencies like the police are not sensitive to the issue and copyright protection societies simply don't have the requisite manpower. Now IPRS and PPL are planning to upgrade their infrastructure. For instance, the IPRS is going to increase its licence fee. Explains Tips Industries' Kumar Taurani, one of its board members: "Discotheques generally pay us a licence fee of around Rs 60,000 per year. This is peanuts compared to the millions they make every night."

But there is some good news. Things seem to be changing for the music industry at last. Delhi currently has 800 IPRS licence users and every month the local office receives 200-300 new requests for licences. Also, starting October, IPRS plans to initiate new measures to counter the problem of copyright violation posed by remix albums. Enforcement agencies also may be waking up to the problem finally. Copyright laws are now being taught at some police training institutes to sensitise the force towards the issue and its legalities.

But the bigger issue is of sensitising the people at large. The Indian mindset, after all, rarely recognises the possibility that we may have to pay for any sort of software, whether it's computer programmes or music.