The proposed amendment of royalty to the artists in the entertainment industry under Indian copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2012 has raised a controversy

Indian copyright (Amendment) Bill 2012 is now waiting for the approval of president. Enacting the amended act is now a matter of time. You can get the details of the bill from here. The experts and the people related to the copyright laws started to analyze the pros and cons of the bill. The general people and most of the critics have welcomed the passage of the bill. However, there are some concerns about the bill among the users of the copyright bill. The producers of film industries are most vocal against the proposed amendment of royalty to the artists in the entertainment industry. In this article, you will get the arguments of the two sides.

The amendment will ensure the royalty of the artists, composers, musicians and performers by making them the owner of copyrights. Previously, the producers or the publishers were the owners of the copyrights. Those who are in favor of the amendment have said that Bollywood had misused randomly the copyright act and deprived the creative artists not paying the legitimate royalties to them. Being the owner of the copyrights, the producers could sell the rights of artistic work to anyone and make huge profits without paying a single farthing to the creator. Javed Akhter, renowned lyricist termed the deal as a legal surrender of intellectual property rights. The new law will bring the end of producer regime.

The above proposal sounds nice. However, this proposal was harshly criticized by the producers’ guild labeling it as an unrealistic approach and emotionally guided policy. The charge was serious. They said that the content of the proposal was totally biased. The lawmakers have failed to access the reality of the entertainment Industry. Lyricist Javed Akhter and singer Shubha Mudgal approached the Ministry of Human Resources to inform the miserable conditions of “poor, downtrodden and starving performers”. They argued that the mythical performers have no power to protect intellectual property rights or collect the royalties from the powerful film industries for using their works. The delegation said that the creator of the native performing arts can collect their legitimate royalty through a Government sponsored legislated co-operative society. Being convinced by the argument, the Government included the clause of Royalty Collection Society in the proposed bill. The critics of the bill said that it was right that the producers paid lesser amount to the artists. The main reason of it is that only seven percent of the works can be monetized. The producers fed the rest 93 percent from that monetization. The potential artists like Javed Akhter and A.R. Rahaman has the ability to negotiate with the producers. But, what will be the fate of new artists? Will anybody invest to promote their products? The new amendment will close the door of the new creation.

The issue is controversial. The time will say who is correct?

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By Aurobinda Panda: By Aurobinda Panda

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