Business IdeasNews broadcasters oppose amendment of copyright laws
The issue of proposed amendments to the existing Copyright Act, 1957, is becoming a flash point between broadcasters and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD), with news broadcasters asking the government to take them into confidence before undertaking any amendment to the law.
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This comes after objections from the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the apex body of all broadcasters last week.
Now, the News Broadcasters Association (NBA), the association of 14 leading news broadcasters in the country, has sent its representation to the HRD ministry. Sources say the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) has already given its observations on the proposed amendment to the Copyright Act, without consulting any of the broadcasters.
“Essentially, news broadcasters are concerned that nothing should be amended in the original Act which affects the well-established and understood right of broadcasters to fair use of material, including broadcast reproduction right,” NBA said in a statement today.
Under the proposed changes to the existing law, broadcasters may be forced to shell out Rs 1-1.5 lakh for every song that is sung by contestants in musical talent hunt shows like Indian Idol or Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, and they are not liking it at all. Even news broadcasters will have to cough up a similar amount for every telecast of matches and old clippings. At present, broadcasters do not pay any such fees.
In its representation, NBA said: “The proposed deletion of Section 52(1)(b)(ii) also seriously prejudices news broadcasters, since the entire Section 52 is part of the exceptions to infringement of broadcast reproduction right under Section 39(c) of the Original Act; and, if Section 52(1)(b)(ii) is deleted, this salutary exception to infringement, namely fair dealing with a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work for the purpose of reporting current events by broadcast, will be lost.”
“Once the amendments are made to the Copyright Act, the music companies could demand any amount (Rs 75,000-1,00,000 per song) for two-three minutes of use and in some cases the demand could go to as high as Rs 1.50 lakh. This is wrong and one-sided, as there is no provision for redressal,” Avnindra Mohan, Essel Group’s executive vice-president and head of corporate affairs had told Business Standard earlier. This move will also affect news channels, which are already coping with low advertising revenue and high cost of operations.