The government is close to endorsing film producer s? view that they need not share royalties with lyricists in an equitable manner. It is not legally binding on producers to share the royalties equitably with other creators, it reckons. The two sides are, however, free to enter into any form of mutually agreed contracts to share the royalties.
Sources said the HRD ministry, which was examining the amendments to the Copyright Act, 1957, has veered to this view after most other ministries concerned, including I&B and law, favoured maintaining status quo. The matter is now likely to be placed before the Cabinet for final approval.
?After the issue was looked into in greater details, it was felt that while there were many stakeholders behind any successful work and disputes could rise from non-provision of clarity, the government would like to see coordinated efforts between all stakeholders in resolving the matter with mutual consent and not by way of forced changes in the law,? a person familiar with the matter said.
As part of the deliberations, the government is now expected to water down the contentious amendments (Sections 18 and 19, among others) that talked about an equitable sharing of royalty with composers/lyricists and the ownership rights of such works.
The government in December last year had approved the proposal to introduce a Bill in the Parliament to amend the Copyright Act, 1957. However, the move divided the film and music industries, with producers opposing the move and lyricists and composers supporting it.
According to the amendments proposed, musicians, lyricists and recordists were entitled to royalty for commercial use of their work outside the films (use in reality shows, public performances, physical and online sales, downloads, ringtones, etc). The HRD ministry also proposed an amendment to give independent rights to authors of literary and musical work in cinematographic films.
Film producers threatened to go on indefinite strike if the government went ahead with the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010, without safeguarding their interests. They even sought the intervention of several Congress leaders including I&B minister Ambika Soni, HRD minister Kapil Sibal and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, among others, who assured them of all possible support.
The lyricists, singers, composers and recordists, however have been demanding a share in the earnings made by broadcasters, performers, mobile firms, music companies and the various online sites as it is their compositions on which everyone but them makes money.
According to the latest Ficci-KPMG report, digital music will drive the industry in the next few years due to availability of legitimate platforms, growth in mobile phones and the spread of 3G services. ?The industry is expected to grow from R853 crore in 2010 to R1,900 crore by 2015 with digital music as the driver,? the report said.
The Copyright Bill in its current form, according to experts, will directly impact film music as music companies (current rights holder to film music) will no longer be the sole rights holders. However, with multiple stakeholders as owners of film music, the strength of music firms to milk economic benefits from the film music could drastically go down, something film producers and music firms are opposed to.
