Ilaiyaraaja has no copyrights of his works: Recording firm
CHENNAI: Since music composer Ilaiyaraaja has not retained the copyrights of his works with film producers like AR Rahman has been doing, he is not in a position to claim the rights to his songs which were composed between 1970 and 1990, recording company ‘Echo’ submitted before the Madras High Court.
The first division bench of acting Chief Justice R Mahadevan and Justice Mohammed Shaffiq heard an appeal preferred by Echo challenging the single judge order, recognising the special right of Ilayaraja over the 4,500 songs composed by him.
Senior counsel Vijay Narayan representing Echo submitted that since Ilaiyaraaja received remunerations for his works, the copyright for the songs vests completely with the respective producers.
The film producer is the person who pays and engages everyone contributing to the film, hence the sound of the film is also owned by him, said the counsel.
The counsel also submitted that his client bought the rights to 4,500 songs composed by Ilaiyaraaja until 1990 from the respective film producers. Since the composer has not made any agreement with producers for the copyright of his works as AR Rahman does, he cannot claim the rights. According to section 57 of the Copyrights Act, 2012, Ilaiyaraaja has moral rights to protect his honour and integrity if anyone mutates or distorts his work. However, in this case, the appellant has not distorted Ilayaraja’s work negatively, the counsel contended.
The counsel also cited Section 17 of the Act and defended his client that since Ilaiyaraaja has not shared the copyright of his works with the producer, he cannot claim any rights.
The bench observed that even trinity of Carnatic music Thiyagarajar, Muthuswami Dikshithar, and Syama Sasthri had never claimed themselves above the music and said they were none before the music and posted the matter on June 19, for further submission.