Arik Carmi (Music Services) 12 September 2011

Illegal use of copyrighted music

Hey guys !

Really nice to find this forum,

I have a big issue with my client since few months now.

A very very big company in india (i prefer not to mention them at this stage) have used a copyrighted music that is protected by the international law of music rights .

They used it on a very big TV channel in india without any official confirmation or whatsoever from our side.

Since then , we've been struggeling to get their attention to that and finally when we managed to get someone to speak to us , they said that they are offering a very small fee to solve this illegal use .

Now my question is ,

Should we contact a local lawyer office in india and let them handle it ?

From previous cases like this , Do anyone knows if India is really taking care of foreign artists ?

We have all the facts that we need (incl. a video taken with the music and their TV commercial) - we want to make sure that we can get the rights we deserve .

Thanks in advance and i'm looking forward hearing from you guys back !

Arik Carmi

for Fatali Music worldwide

Reply Follow

7 Replies

DISHA D. SHAH (lawyer) 12 September 2011

india copyright law is international and protects foreign music.

Arik Carmi (Music Services) 12 September 2011

Good to know thanks !

Anything else the might help regarding this issue ?

much love

Nagaraja B S (Corporate Commercial & IP Lawyer) 14 September 2011

Hi Arik,

I can help you in this matter, am a specialized Intellectual Property Lawyer.

For more details or solutions in this matter Contact

Nagaraj

Corporate, Commercial & IP Lawyer

IP Lex Global Services

Email: nagaraja_bs@iplexglobal.in

Mob: 0091-09902007635 / 34

Suchitra. S (Advocate) 16 September 2011

I can help you too, as I work as deal with IPR matters.

Legal Maximus ( IP & Back office legal support and documents) 16 September 2011

We can also assist you in the matter.

ghanshyam hemdev (director) 17 September 2011

Getting legal help is no problem as we have very good lawyers in India to represent you and the laws are also very good in this regard.But as a person who has gone through these legal tangles my experience has been that juctice delayed is juctice denied.That is what will happen once you proceed on the legal angle.It takes from one year to 10 years for cases to be adjudicated, because most of these big companies have a legal team to take care of these kinds of problems.But also note that without a legal recourse you will not even be heard by these big companies.So it will be prudent to take a legal action to get thier attention and then settle to your best satisfaction.

(Guest)

Dear Arik,

I agree with Mr. Ghanshyam Hemdev that litigation in India could be frustrating and taxing and he is correct when he says that some legal action would be required to gain infringers attention considering they are a big media house and are able to prolong copyrighted infringement litigations to the point of frustrating the plaintiff into out of court settlements.

Going further, please consider the following two step approach:

1) Hire an Indian attorney to send cease and desist notice to prevent further infringement of copyright; and

2) A follow up step would be to file a copyright infringement case against them. Please be advised that since it is a big company it may work in you favor since they would try and avoid any wrong publicity as that would lead to a bad brand image. This can provide you with an upper hand even for the purposes of court settlement.

Addtionally, to prevent such instances in the future consider handing over the administration of your copyrights to a copyright society in India who can keep a track of illegal use of your work and litigate on your behalf apart from licensing out your work for a fee.

Hope this helps.

Abhinav Bhalla

Advocate l Registered Patent Agent

abhinav@brbhallaassociates.com

+91-9910406711