Copyright

On Tuesday, 17th July 2018, the Delhi High Court vide an order secured the commercial interest of Gothic Entertainment in the film “Batti Gul Meter Chalu” (“Film”), whilst restraining them from interfering with the commercial exploitation of the Film in any manner whatsoever. This order (yet to be uploaded) was...

In a rather detailed judgment dated May 28th, 2018, a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court has upheld the constitutionality of certain provisions of the Copyright Rules, 2013 in the matter of Anand Bhushan & Ors. v. Union of India. To give a brief background: In 2013, a writ petition was filed in...

By Hiral Chheda UPDATE: ZEE ENTERTAINMENT ENTERPRISES LIMITED V. MUSICAL.LY, INC. & ORS. In a recent development, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (“Zee”) has filed a suit in the High Court of Delhi against the popular Chinese video content and online sharing APP ‘Musical.ly, Inc.’ (“Musical.ly”). Zee has sought for a...

Producers Copyright Guild (PCG) has issued a public notice in a trade magazine inviting all sound recording and cinematographic film authors to get membership of the PCG. ‘Author’ referred in the public notice is “Producer” as defined under Section 2 (d)(v) of the Copyright Act, 1957. The public notice further...

This article was first featured in the magazine 'The Kolkata Protector' (March-April 2018 edition), a magazine for the Kolkata Police. The e-version of the article can be accessed here.  It is not easy to list down only five hurdles faced by the Media and Entertainment industry of India, but I...

I was reading Mr. Javed Akhtar’s interview which was published in Times of India today and there was one striking line which he said which made me wonder what on earth is going on? When asked about the plans to go beyond synchronization royalty, Mr. Akhtar responded “The `13-crore distribution...

The distribution of royalties to the tune of INR 13 crores by IPRS to its author members recently made headlines. It also gave rise to a lot of questions and speculations on why would PPL make royalty payments to IPRS. I was personally surprised since I was under the...

I am pleased to bring to you our first guest post by Ankit Relan. Ankit Relan, is a practicing attorney in the Delhi High Court, and represents some of the biggest names in the film and music industry in India. He handles the copyright and technology law practice at...

In my previous post here, I had covered details of the legal notice issued by Mr. Javed Akhtar to Armaan Malik, Amaal Malik and T Series in relation to the recreated version of the song ‘Ghar Se Nikalte Hi’. In this post, I shall be analysing the legal position on...

The Delhi High Court today dismissed the suit which was filed by the Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS) against Aditya Pandey and others in 2006. Read judgement here. Key Highlights of the judgement: Jurisdiction – IPRS had filed an application under Order VII Rule 10 of the CPC for return...