Copyright Bill gets Parliament nod

NEW DELHI: The Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2012 received Parliamentary approval on the last date of the budget session, with the Lok Sabha passing it unanimously today.

The Rajya Sabha had passed the legislation late last week. The legislation will now go to the President Pratibha Devisingh Patil for her assent, before it is notified and becomes law.

The legislation had been opposed in Parliament in its last session, particularly the clause for statutory licensing for radio broadcast of literary and musical works.

Song writers, artistes and performers received unanimous support from members from all parties in the Lok Sabha for their claim to get royalty for their creations, with many MPs pointing out that the benefits of the songs have so far been kept by producers.

The bill declares authors as owners of the copyright, which cannot be assigned to the producers as was the practice till now.

Noting that artistes had been left in the lurch as the producers cornered all the royalties, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said in reply to a brief debate that the new law will help them live a good life even in old age as they would continue to get their dues for their work.

He gave examples of Shehnai exponent Bismillah Khan and music composer Ravi to press home the point that the condition of such excellent artistes was pitiable as they were not able to pay even house rent and hospital charges.

It will now become mandatory for broadcasters - both radio and television - to pay royalty to the owners of the copyright each time a work of art is broadcast. It bans people from bringing out cover versions of any literary, dramatic or musical work for five years from the first recording of the original creation.

The bill also seeks to remove operational difficulties and address newer issues related to the digital world.

However, a provision initially placed in the Bill to provide royalty to the principal director of a film in keeping with the suggestion of the Parliamentary Standing Committee has been removed. "We wanted to actually give this right over royalty to principal director. He is perhaps principal creator. But there was a feeling expressed by the Parliamentary Standing Committee that the time is not ripe to give that right. So, we are dropping it," Sibal had told the Rajya Sabha.

The cabinet had earlier deferred moving the bill because of differences between the Information and Broadcasting and HRD Ministries. It was understood that the two Ministries in their ?fine tuning? exercise had also agreed to restore the provision of statutory licensing as proposed earlier in 2010.

The amendments to the Copyright Act 1958, aim at according unassignable rights to ?creative artists? such as lyricists, playback singers, music directors, film directors, dialogue writers who will be paid royalty every time the movie they have worked in is aired on a television channel.

A statutory licence is an exception under Copyright Act. It puts limits on the basic principle of the copyright law, that authors and creators should have the exclusive right to control the dissemination of their work. Under statutory licensing, the royalty or remuneration for the author or creator is specified by law or such set negotiation.

With the bill getting clearance, the statutory licensing clause will not specify users allowing for television and new media broadcasters as well as radio broadcasters to benefit.