The Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted an interim injunction in the case filed by Sony Music Entertainment against KAL Radio Ltd, restricting the latter from broadcasting any songs copyrighted by the former on their stations till July 2, reported Bar and Bench.
Sony filed a copyright infringement suit against the FM radio company when, following an email back-and-forth between the two organisations in March regarding the licensing of certain copyright protected works, Sony India representatives found that KAL Radio was broadcasting Sony recordings on their various FM stations without seeking permission.
Senior Advocate Janak Dwarkadas appearing for Sony sought urgent ad-interim restraining order on the grounds that KAL Radio did not have a license and, therefore, the act of broadcasting the songs without permit was infringement and immediately actionable, the report said.
KAL Radio, a part of Sun TV Network Ltd group, had obtained certain licenses to use Sony India’s copyright protected work from the Phonographic Performance Limited, of which Sony India was a member.
KAL Radio had first sent an email to Sony India in February claiming entitlement to a statutory license and forwarded a cheque for Rs 64,570. Sony rejected this on the grounds that KAL Radio’s notice did not comply with Section 31-D of the Copyright Act 1957 and returned the cheque.
The Copyright Board in 2010 had determined the license fee in regard to the compulsory licensing regime under Section 31-D which stated that “the broadcasting organisation shall give prior notice, in such manner as may be prescribed, of its intention to broadcast the work stating the duration and territorial coverage of the broadcast, and shall pay to the owner of rights royalties in the manner and at the rate fixed by the Appellate Board.”
In March, KAL Radio had emailed Sony India with their royalty calculation which amounted to Rs 67,514 and a log file of its radio channels which showed that it has been using Sony India’s copyrighted works.
It was then that Sony Music went ahead with the civil suit and claimed injunction and damages.
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Abhishek Malhotra, KAL Radio’s representative, tried to reason and stated that “KAL was entitled to use Sony India’s work as per Section 31-D of the Copyright Act the moment it sends a notice and payment.”
Justice Gautam Patel, who heard the case, observed that KAL Radio could not hand-pick the rules that suited it best.
“In effect, his submissions amounts to saying that his client can interpret the statute and the rules as loosely as it wishes, need not conform to the statutory regime, and none can deny his client a ‘right’ to use someone else’s copyright-protected material,” Justice Patel said in response to Malhotra’s submission.
The court then granted an ad-interim injunction restraining KAL from broadcasting Sony’s copyrighted works till July 2, 2021.