Is it fair for a musical legend like Ilayaraja to claim a share in the profit of a concert where his songs are performed?
This is the question that keeps circulating in the social media since Tuesday evening when the maestro released a video regarding copyrights and royalty.
In the video statement, the veteran composer has questioned, “The song is mine and you are earning with that. Am I not supposed to be paid for that?” However, the ‘Thaara Thappattai‘ music director has clarified that he is claiming the royalty only for his songs performed in a paid concerts but not for the free ones.
Also, he has warned that People violating this will be facing severe legal action. The composer in his statement has said that the violation charges will be enquired and put to legal action by the Tamil Musicians Unions, that will also collect the royalty money.
Earlier this year, Ilayaraja sent a legal notice to renowned vocalist SP Balasubrahmanyam for performing his songs on stage without his permission. As per the legal notice, SPB, his son, Charan (playback singer and actor), singer, Chitra and all organisers of concerts in different cities and management of all venues should stop singing Ilaiyaraja’s compositions without his consent.
The notice also stated that if they continue to do so, it would be breaking the copyright law and the offenders have to pay huge financial penalties along with legal actions. In this matter, legal experts feel that Ilaiyaraja and his team went a little overboard in dealing with this issue.
Speaking to ‘News Today‘, senior personnel of the faculty of law, Delhi University who wished to be anonymous said, “Music, patents, formulas, arts, etc., come under the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). But in the case of singers singing Ilaiyaraja’s compositions, I couldn’t find any breach of the law. As per the norms, a person is considered to be an offender only if he commercialises the exact copy of the song. In case of concerts, singers reproduce in the form of a cover version to the audience. So, the notice can be easily challenged and won in court.”
Contemplating his words, a music enthusiast, Rajneesh, said, “No song belongs to a single person. It’s a collaborative effort. Songs are born by the combined efforts of playback singer, musicians, composer, lyricist, director and producer. A composer (Ilaiyaraaja) alone cannot claim a song to be his own. When all the others too claim like this, the song will lose its reputation and its legacy will be at stake.”
But many music composers go all out lauding Raja’s move while a few also felt the need for the issue to end. A music composer based out of the city, Rubesh Radhakrishnan, said “Copyright was first brought to Tamil cinema by A R Rahman but it’s sad to see his own fans criticising Raja’s move. Copyright is a part and parcel of today’s music industry. In abroad, a copyrighted song cannot be even played in a party hall. Also, fans fail to analyse the hard work of the composers in giving a song a new life. So, I wish this to set a good example for others to follow.”
Another music composer, Jagan Jayakumaran, said, “The stand taken by Ilaiyaraja is right. Even with more efforts music producers get paid very less. Singers get paid reasonably for what they sing while they also earn by singing those songs through concerts. But then again, making people get permission always to perform is also not good.”
Finally, it’s quite interesting to see the direction taken by this issue. A few reports say, singers might face the notice legally while a few also claim, the issue will soon get diluted.
But if the notice is challenged in the court, the outcome will be the greatest example for others to follow and will kick-start a new era with respect to copyrights and similar stuff.