CHENNAI: The stature of renowned music composer Ilaiyaraaja does not put him above the law and he cannot claim copyright for his musical works without retaining an agreement for such right, the Echo Recording company told the Madras High Court on Thursday.
Advancing the arguments on behalf of the music label before the first bench of Acting Chief Justice R Mahadevan and Justice Mohammed Shaffiq, senior counsel Vijay Narayan said the music composer lost his rights as soon as he received the remuneration for the musical work for a cinematograph movie, for which, he was commissioned by the producer through an agreement, though not in the nature of a master-servant relationship.
“Certainly, he is a musical genius but when he is employed and he receives remuneration, then the provisions of the Copyright Act apply. Once he is remunerated for his work, then he loses all his rights in those works as far as copyright is concerned,” the counsel stressed. Echo Recording filed the appeal challenging the particular part of the order by a single judge bench, which said that the music composer has a special moral right to exploit his musical works as he desired with regard to the 4,500 songs he composed from the 1970s to 1990s.
Vijay Narayan said the status did not put him above the law, pointing out that the single judge (Justice Anita Sumanth) is ‘bound by the rule of evidence’ and the relevant statutory provisions. “To say that the proviso C to section 17 of the Copyright Act does not apply because of the stature of the composer is completely alien to law,” he told the court.
Rahman retains copyright
Vijay Narayan noted that music composer AR Rahman has been retaining the copyright of his musical works but Ilaiyaraja did not do so, maybe because he was not aware of the popularity and the profits such works may fetch in the later years.
“If the author wanted to retain the ownership, then there could be an agreement to the contrary (to the one entered with the producer), which is what most authors are doing now. I am told that AR Rahman never parts with the copyright of his musical work,” he said.
Narayan stated that in the absence of an agreement for retaining the copyright, the employer, here the producer of the movie, will be the first author. This is what is important to this case, he added.