Court to ESG: Pay Rs 5.8L for infringing song copyrights

Panaji: A local court has directed the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) to pay Rs 5.8 lakh to the Indian Performing Right Society Ltd (IPRS) for copyright infringement at Kingfisher village, which hosted concerts during the International Film Festival of India in Panaji a few years ago.

The court also restrained ESG from holding any such concerts under the umbrella of Iffi that would violate copyrights.

The IPRS is a registered copyright society administering public performance and communication rights for lyrics and musical composition for authors of lyrics, music composers, directors, and music companies.

The society secured a court decree against the ESG for allowing programmes at the event with musical work by different bands, DJs and dance troupes, in which many works were from the IPRS repertoire and were performed without a licence.

“It was proved that IPRS is the owner of the copyright of all the songs played during the event. To play those songs, licence was mandatory. It is ordered that the ESG shall pay to IPRS a sum of Rs 5,77,500 towards the royalty/licence fee,” the court order reads. The amount is calculated at the rate of Rs 50,000 per day per day and VAT.

Ad-hoc district judge-1, Panaji, Cholu Gauns, said that “they are permanently restrained from infringing the copyright of IPRS in any musical works by holding any concerts under the umbrella of Iffi or any other such events at Kingfisher village in public”.

IPRS is authorised under the Copyright Act, 1957, to carry on the business of granting and issuing licenses in respect of musical works and literary works associated with musical works assigned to it by its members, as well as to collect and distribute royalties to its members, including authors’ statutory royalties, for the exploitation of these works either by way of live performances and/or recorded music, through any medium except when exhibited as a part of a cinematograph film shown in a cinema hall.