Echo Company has argued in the Madras High Court that composer Ilayaraja cannot claim any rights over the songs and he did not sign a contract like AR Rahman.
Ilayaraja, who has not entered into any copyright agreement with the producers, cannot claim any rights over the songs. Echo has argued that the producer who receives the paid music service is the first copyright owner.
The Madras High Court has said that the final judgment of the appeal case is subject to the final judgment of the appeal case as to who owns the money earned by Ilayaraja commercially through the sale of songs.
Music companies including Ekko and Aki had signed contracts to use 4 thousand 500 songs of composer Ilayaraja. Even after the deal, Ilayaraja had filed a lawsuit claiming that he was using his songs without obtaining copyright.
In 2019, the single judge of the Madras High Court, who heard the case, issued an order in 2019 that the music companies had the right to use Ilayaraja’s songs after acquiring the rights from the producers, and that Ilayaraja also had a personal moral privilege over these songs.
Hearing the appeal filed by Ilayaraja against this order, a two-judge bench of the High Court imposed an interim ban on music companies from using Ilayaraja’s songs.
Meanwhile, an appeal was filed on behalf of Echo Company, which claimed that the copyright of the film is with the producer and they have the right to use the songs based on the agreement made with them.
When the case came up for hearing before the bench of Justices R. Mahadevan and Mohammad Shafiq, Echo Company argued that since the producer had paid Ilayaraja for composing the music, the rights would go to the producer.
Responding to that, the senior counsel for Ilayaraja said that since music composition is a creative work, copyright law does not apply. The judges who intervened then, if so, the lyrics and the singer all come together to form the song. No lyrics, no song. In that case, they questioned what would happen if the lyricist also claimed the rights to the song.
The hearing was then adjourned to today. Today, the case came back for hearing. At that time, the lawyer appearing on behalf of Echo Company, the music composer Ilayaraja, argued that no rights can be claimed over the songs.
Ilayaraja, who has not entered into any copyright agreement with the producers, cannot claim any rights over the songs. Echo argued that the producer who receives the paid music service is the first copyright owner.
Music Composer AR Rahman does not assign copyright to anyone. However, Ilayaraja has given away the copyright with the filmmakers. If the right is to be retained, the contract must be entered into. Echo company has argued that they cannot claim rights to the song without signing the contract.
Also, the moral right comes only if you twist the music or change the lyrics. Echo has argued that after getting paid to compose music for a song, it cannot claim any rights over the songs. Subsequently, the Madras High Court has adjourned the hearing to June 19 for Ilayaraja’s arguments.
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