The Indian news channels haven’t stopped relaying the scandals and instances of corruption associated with the Commonwealth Games 2010 hosted by India since the day the preparations for them began to see light. After being embroiled in controversy through its preparatory period, the games saw you and me being enthusiastic about sports like Athletics, Archery or Gymnastics, sports we follow once every four years at the Olympics.
With the medal count on a rise, for those two weeks we forgot about the negativity, the corrupt practices, the laundering and the legal battles that ought to follow. Three months later, the CBI probe is on, showing far fewer results than we anticipated. However, there have been two recent allegations against the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee that might just reach the justified end.
While on one hand we see an Australian company demanding that their dues be cleared, on another, we see T-series sending a copyright infringement notice to the Organising Committee of the games. T-series, a major music label in India, it has always been in the forefront in protecting its intellectual property. From a legal suit against YouTube, where they stopped the video uploading website to store and show clips and songs from the movies under their label, T-series has been using the relevant sections of the Copyright Act, 1957 to its fullest.
In this particular legal notice sent, T-series is alleging (and rightly so) an infringement of their copyright. They claim that there exists a valid basis for them to get compensated for such an infringement since songs from movies like Kaminey, Slumdog Millionaire and Om Shanti Om amongst others were telecast as a part of the Games without proper licenses. They further contend that these songs were used either in their entirety or as a tune in the background of the various parts of the Games.
For anybody, an individual, a company or an organisation, to use the music or songs whose copyright vests with another, there exists a need to take appropriate licenses or no objection certificate/permissions to use such songs unless they fall within the ambit of fair use. You might remember reading about Farah Khan, director and producer of Tees Maar Khan obtaining a no objection certificate (NOC) from Manoj Kumar, an erstwhile Indian actor, for using a song Desh ki Dharti in the movie so as to avoid the embarrassment faced by her on a similar issue with Manoj Kumar during her prior release Om Shanti Om.
While T-Series clearly agrees that the Committee had taken a ground license from them for playing the songs during the Games, they mention that a license for telecast rights of these songs was not taken. The music label has sent this legal notice for copyright infringement to the tune of INR one crore. This can serve as an eye opener for many organisers who are either complacent or unaware that different licenses have to be procured for different purposes and that in copyright there exists nothing like common wealth.
