MUMBAI: Having achieved a major victory with the passage of the Copyright Amendment Act in June, the music industry and collective societies are hoping to make the business better for the artistes and composers. But with a majority of rules regarding statutory and compulsory licensing yet to be framed, Anand and Anand media & entertainment lawyer Rahul Ajatshatru claimed during a panel discussion that the act would be ready for implementation by March 2013.

The session on ‘The Creative View on the Copyright Act’ at Radioandmusic.com’s Nokia Music Connects 4 had a panel discussion moderated by Onmobile content head Atul Churamani. The other panel members included composer Ram Sampath, PPL CEO Vipul Pradhan, IPRS CEO Rakesh Nigam, BMI executive director, writer and publisher relations Brandon Bakshi and Rahul Ajatshatru.

Discussing the future after the passage of the act, Sampath kicked off with his views on the act by stating that the feudalism of the system had been addressed now because  composers and artistes had been sidelined for the past 10 years. “Earlier, we didn’t have a say and had to make do by negotiations and whatever we received. We were driven to other industries to earn a living. With the Copyright Act, creativity will benefit as there are a good breed of composers and singers now. If they can get a genuine system where they can receive revenues continuously, the music industry will thrive,” he said.

Providing an insight into the workings of the music industry in the west, Bakshi informed that the artistes there receive a guaranteed royalty for their performances. Their musical works are published through the BMI and the publishers and authors were paid on time.

Nigam revealed how the act would help the IPRS and PPL society engage better with the BMI society in the west. He said, “We have agreements with the BMI. The act will help in a 50-50 deal with the publisher and the composer. The licensing should be done only by the copyright society and the authors and composers will now be the first owners of their work. It has different interpretations, but according to us, the act covers the utilization of the work in any format with all performing royalties through the PPL and IPRS.”

He bemoaned, “Even though the act is for the benefit of the authors of different works of music, there are many who do not want to be a part of the publishing society. Everyone has divergent views on the act, but the IPRS and PPL can only assign the ownership of the work and not the royalty rights.

Also highlighting other important rules being formulated in the Copyright act, Ajatshatru pointed out, “Cover versions of tracks like ‘Disco Deewane’ will be allowed to be sold only in the physical format with the prior permission of the owner. While agreeing, Bakshi added that in the west, people could type the name of the song on the BMI site and obtain the information and contact details of the owner.

Contradicting the positive note by the panel,  Pradhan said, “People think there will be a lot of clarity once the act is passed, but in actuality, there is a lot of work left for the lawyers to do as it is still not clear. We will have to wait and seen how economical it will be as anyone can challenge IPRS now. The law is still one sided towards the users community and not the owners. The major source of revenue is licensing, so that needs to be looked into with greater detail too.”

While TV and radio are already under statutory licensing, according to the new law even the background music of serials and advertisements will be included under the licensing aspect.

“Being registered with the Performing Rights Society in UK since the past 10 years, and despite being registered with the IPRS, the only way for composers to monetize rights so far  has been the PRS which even gives revenues for background scores,” revealed Sampath.

Defending his organization, Nigam said, “In India, the law earlier didn’t allow collection of royalties but now they are focusing on making the cue-sheets which enable composers and song-writers to get royalties.”

Rounding off the session Sampath pointed that the amendment had brought in a lot more people and now composers and authors could make music outside movies and earn money. “Bands still find it tough to make a living since there is a lot of money in Bollywood and everyone gets attracted towards it. But now with record labels doing exciting stuff too, it’s an opportunity for artistes to be open to experimenting.”