Legendary music director Ilaiyaraaja is known for litigating filmmakers when they use his compositions in their films without his permission. However, the composer has now faced a setback in a legal battle with Saregama. The other day, the Delhi High Court passed a restraining order against the composer in a case between him and the company. Consequently, the composer and/or anyone working for him can no longer exploit many of his musical creations tied to Saregama, as the label holds the rights to them. The order would be applicable to music in 134 films, according to a Bar and Bench report.
"Defendant [Ilaiyaraaja], its partners or proprietors, licensees, assigns, officers, servants, agents, representatives, contractors, sister concerns and any other person working for and on behalf of the defendant are restrained from exploiting/ using/ issuing licenses for the plaintiff’s Copyrighted Works i.e. the sound recordings and literary and musical works forming a part of the said Cinematograph Films enlisted in Annexure A appended to this Order or making any claim of ownership to the third parties or issuing any license for exploitation in relation to the plaintiff’s Copyrighted Works," reads the order.
Ilaiyaraaja and Saregama have been entangled in a battle for the copyrights of the track 'En Iniya Pon Nilave' from the 1980 film Moodu Pani. The court ruled in favour of Saregama in the case connected to the aforesaid song as well.
Saregama recently approached the court with a different lawsuit, claiming that from 1976 to 2001, the company got into deals with the makers of many cinematograph films. The said deals vested the rights of the recordings and the underlying literary and musical works to Saregama on a perpetual and global basis.
As per the lawsuit, earlier this February, Ilaiyaraaja not only uploaded many of the musical works on streaming platforms, such as JioSaavn, iTunes, and Amazon Music, but also asserted ownership over these and authorised their use. Saregama also mentioned a January-dated legal notice from the music director where he claims rights over his compositions for many different films, which include some that pertain to the current dispute as well.
The company argued that, as per the 1957 Copyright Act and Supreme Court (SC) orders, first owners of copyrights in works that are commissioned for cinematograph films are the respective films' producers, except if there are no deals contradicting the aforementioned.
Justice Tushar Rao Gedela has agreed with the company's case before passing the order. The justice stated that if the composer is not kept from exploiting the said recordings, it might cause irreparable loss and injury to Saregama.
