Sunburn Goa Festival in Goa: Bombay HC restrains organizers from playing Bollywood songs owned by Novex Communications without license
The Indian Express | 3 days ago | 12-26-2022 | 07:40 p.m
The Indian Express
3 days ago | 12-26-2022 | 07:40 p.m
THE BOMBAY High Court has temporarily restrained the organizers of the Sunburn Festival in Goa, which will be held between December 28 to 30 and allied events, from playing Bollywood songs and sound recordings, which would infringe the copyrights in any work owned and protected by Novex Communications. The court said the organizers can approach the plaintiff, Novex Communications, for a grant of license for playing such recordings during the event. Novex communications claimed that it has exclusive rights over sound recordings of several music companies, and it is an authorized firm for Zee Music Company, Yash Raj Films (YRF) and Eros International Media Ltd among others. A single-judge bench of Justice Manish Pitale on December 21 passed an order in an interim application filed by Novex Communications against Percept and Percept Live Pvt Limited in its copyright infringement suit. Senior advocate Sharan Jagtiani representing Novex submitted that it has exclusive rights in respect of the repertoire of large numbers of film and non-film songs in Hindi and other regional languages and it has signed assignment deeds with seven music labels. The said deeds include “on -ground performance rights” such as live events in commercial establishments, including clubs, hotels, restaurants etc. Novex can issue licenses to third parties to play the songs for an event or certain periods in exchange for a fee. The plaintiff claimed that it had issued notice to the defendants on November 24 expressing apprehension that the Sunburn organizers were likely to violate the plaintiff’s rights in the upcoming event in Goa and asked them to cease such violation and apply for appropriate licenses for playing such sound recordings instead. No response to the notice from the defendants prompted Novex to file an interim plea in HC seeking urgent relief. Justice Pitale noted that there was sufficient material on record to show exclusive rights held by the plaintiff concerning sound recordings of seven music labels. The judge also found the past conduct of the defendants in considering urgent relief. It noted that the defendant had on one occasion conceded exclusive rights held by the plaintiff and on another occasion had given an undertaking to HC that it would not play sound recordings of Novex for all its events throughout India. The court held “a strong prima facie case was made out by the Plaintiff in its favor.””…There is sufficient material to show that the Defendants may violate the exclusive rights held by the Plaintiff in the aforementioned sound recordings, particularly in the backdrop of the past conduct of the Defendants and that therefore, if ad-interim relief, as prayed, is not granted, the Plaintiff is likely to suffer grave and irreparable loss,” Justice Pitale held. Pending the hearing and final disposal of the suit, the bench issued a temporary injunction against the defendants. It clarified that the said ad-interim relief will not come in the way of defendants applying to Novex for a grant of license in the event they wish to play the sound recordings of which the plaintiff holds exclusive rights. The bench posted the further hearing to February 10, 2023, and noted that the interim relief will continue to operate until then. In another order, Justice Pitale restrained the hotels, restaurants, resorts, lounges, pubs, clubs and bars from using copyright-protected sound recordings of Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL), without a license. The commercial establishments can obtain two types of licenses from PPL, which include one that can be used throughout the year and another for specific events or a period like New Year, Christmas, Holi or corporate events among others. PPL, founded in 1941, claims itself as a performance rights organization that holds performance licenses to over 25 lakh songs assigned to it by over 300 music labels in Hindi, English in other languages.
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