The gala night celebration on the eve of the New Year-2010 at some of the leading hotels and pubs across the country, including Orissa is likely to be a dampener with the Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) serving legal notices on them.
PPL, the apex licensing arm of the Indian Music Industry has issued legal notices to some well known hotels and pubs which have not paid the requisite music license fee to play music at their year-end events.
The legal notices have been issued to hotels and pubs in locations like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Pune, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Goa and Bhubaneswar.
Toshali Sands, Puri is the only hotel in Orissa to have figured in the list of defaulting hotels throughout the country who have been issued legal notices by PPL.
PPL has threatened to initiate legal action against these hotels if they fail to pay the required license fee ahead of their planned events. The non-payment of the license fee can lead to up to three years of imprisonment and a penalty of Rs two lakh.
"New Year parties attract people promising them a good time through a combination of entertainment, food and beverage. A significant component of the sum charged from the customers is for music – an integral element of entertainment. Therefore, the music companies whose sound recording is regularly used have a right towards claiming their due because their product is getting consumed too”, Vipul Pradhan , chief executive officer, PPL said in a release. According to Avinash D'Souza, national sales manager, PPL, “Music labels have complete authority over the sound recordings and using them without a proper license can bring the events and parties to a standstill. People should also act pro actively and check with their chosen properties to avoid a last minute inconvenience or embarrassment.”
Under the statutory sanction of Section 35 of the Indian Copyright Act, playing commercial music in public without paying the requisite license fee is an offence liable to contempt of court.
Section 35 grants exclusivity to PPL to issue licences to hotels and pubs for playing music during the events in their respective premises. The tariff for the same is calculated on the basis of the number of hours the music is to be played and the number of people expected to attend the event.
