Madras HC directs Sony Music Entertainment to provide daily revenue details for Ilaiyaraaja songs

The Madras High Court on Friday directed Sony Music Entertainment to furnish details of the daily revenue generated from broadcasting and telecasting songs composed by maestro Ilaiyaraaja, in a case pertaining to the protection of creative autonomy and copyright of his works.

Justice N Senthilkumar gave the interim direction on a petition filed by Ilaiyaraaja, seeking to declare that Sony had no rights, title, or interest in his works and also to restrain the firm from telecasting/broadcasting his works. The judge made it clear that full details of revenue generation by the company were necessary to decide the matter and ordered production of day-to-day earnings by telecasting/broadcasting songs of the maestro till October 22. Further hearing in the case was posted to that date.

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The judge also observed that the primary issue is whether the producers had entered into an agreement with Ilaiyaraaja and were made parties to the earlier proceedings, when a single judge had earlier stayed the monetisation of his film scores. During a previous hearing, the judge had said that the ultimate sufferers in this dispute were music lovers.

In his petition, the legendary composer submitted that in his long career, he had scored 7,500 songs and consistently maintained and exercised his authorship and ownership, besides retaining absolute rights and titles, including moral rights over his original composition and related sound recordings. He further submitted that his works were not created at an instance, direction, or under the control of any producer as they emerge from his complete creative autonomy, with only some inputs from the director.

Hence, he sought a declaration that his musical works were his independent creations, which are distinct and separate, vested exclusively with him as the original author, under the copyright legal framework. Not only is he the first owner, but also the continuing copyright holder, the petition read.

The plea also sought to declare that Sony had no such rights, title, or interest in his musical works. His counsel told the court that the company was taking his music and distorting it by introducing beats besides remixing it. Under the Copyright Act, even after assignment, the composer could claim damages for mutilation and other modifications that prove to be prejudicial to his reputation.

Countering this, the counsel for Sony argued that before the 2012 amendment to the Copyright Act, the producer who engaged a music director became the owner of the works after paying the composer’s remuneration. It was submitted that since Echo Recording, which had originally purchased the rights for 118 movies, had sold them to Sony, Ilaiyaraaja could not make claims with respect to those works. Further, he contended that the author could claim damages only when a modification affected his reputation.