IMI focuses on Non - Physical Piracy especially Public Performances & Usage of Music during Events
The GOA Story
The Indian Performing Right Society Ltd (IPRS), the Indian Music Industry (IMI) and the Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL) had undertaken an awareness campaign as regards the implementation of the Copyright Act, 1957, in Goa, with the assistance of the local police, in view of the Christmas and new year season, which usually witnesses maximum use of music around the state.
A day-long seminar of ‘Copyright enforcement problems and remedies’ was held at the city police headquarters, on December 7, as a prelude to this campaign. It was addressed by the ‘Supercop’ Julio Ribeiro who is the advisor to the IMI in the matter of music piracy as well as the president of IMI and PPL, Mr Vijay Lazarus.
L to R - Vijay Lazarus & Riberio
Mr Ribeiro, used his good relations in the GOA police and ensured that 39 police inspectors from all over Goa attended the seminar. The seminar was also attended by senior police officials including the DIG of the Goa Police.
Like Mr.Nigam of the IPRS states “Eventhough Goa is a small place, the SHO of every police station was present for the training seminar.”
Though there is no substantial music piracy in Goa, through physical duplication of music CDs, a number of hotels, restaurants, discotheques, music joints and so on play music released under labels of various companies, without even bothering to pay the license fees, as per the fixed tariffs, Mr Ribeiro lamented, adding that most of the live bands also play musical compositions without knowing that they are performing an illegal act. “We need to spread an awareness about the Copyright Act 1957,” he added.
Speaking further, Mr Ribeiro said that police generally treat music piracy as low priority issue for they have many other important things to do. “The IMI has thus relieved the police of the investigation job by taking over this responsibility with the help of retired police personnel and youth, and suggested that the police implement the Act through raids, confiscation of musical equipments, registration of cases and so on,” he pointed out.
The IPRS/ IMI/ PPL released advertisements in the local dailies as well as hired radio spots giving details about the need for paying license fees to play music in public places, during Christmas and new year events and parties. Representatives from the IMI PPL visited various establishments in GOA to explain to their owners about the Copyright Act, 1957, on one-to-one basis.
Last year, Goa had a list of 80 defaulters who were served notices by the PPL. The defaulters list, for the year 2006, included some of the top partying venues and starred as well as non-starred hotels in the state.
Each year, Goan pubs/ hotels rake in revenues with customised new year packages ranging from Rs 1,500 to Rs 20,000 but refuse to pay the nominal license tariff of Rs 15,000 onwards, depending on the number of hours for which the music is played.
Mr Lazarus, President of the IMI PPL, said that in India, the revenue generated from the license fees towards use of music in public places, should have touched Rs 1,000 crore mark. However, it does not even reach Rs 100 crore, he added.
On being asked the effect of this training seminar in GOA Mr.Vipul Pradhan, CEO of the PPL said "Earlier the police thought of us as a cumbersome copyright body and were unwilling to cooperate with our teams. After this training program that perspective of the police officials has changed. They now view us as the protectors of copyright in India. During this festive rush in Goa, the police were not only helping our team but on many instances were also educating the common public the importance of a public performance license.”
On being probed about the revenues from Goa during the festive season of Christmas and The New Year's Mr.Pradhan refused to comment on official figures of license revenues but issued a diplomatic statement - "An immediate effect of this training seminar is that our revenues for all other states inclusive of Goa have gone up by more than 5 times."
On the ocassion Mr. Savio D'Souza, Secretary General of the IMI said "The IMI is known for its reputation for taking action against physical format piracy and have registered more than 10,000 cases. Now we are widening our spectrum even to public performances or usage of music during public events. Usage of music during Public performances or public events without the licence of the copyright holder amounts to infringement of copyright. The legal sections applicable to physical forms of piracy as well as to non physical piracy like Public performances are the same."
The message is clear The IMI PPL & IPRS are not going to limit themselves to only curbing physical forms of piracy but are determined to uproot piracy in non physical forms too.
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The Phillour Seminar
Yet another training program was conducted by the IMI this time in Philour, Punjab. Mr.Saxena, chief of the IMI Anti-Piraacy wing saw to it that the seminar was attended in full strength.
This training program enlightened the police officials how they could use law to their advantage to curb public performances which didn’t have the requisite licences. The police has the right to seize the equipment and stop all such shows which did not have the requisite licenses. However Mr.Savio says "The police was informed that they did not have the right to collect the amount for the licences or fines imposed thereof".
Adds Mr.Savio “We may like to highlight that the police does not help us in collecting revenues but the police informs the defaulter that playing music without the licence of the copyright holder amounts to infringement.” He further adds “ If I need to drive a car I need to buy a license from the local RTO, similarly if I need to play music in public I need to buy a license from the PPL.The RTO doesn’t run after you to get yourselves a driving license it is upto you if you want to take the risk of driving your vehicle without a license. Similarly it is imperative for the users of music to come and take the license from PPL. The PPL will never chase the users to come and take the license.”
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