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In last week\u2019s post, we explored the concept of performer\u2019s rights, which was recognized only in 1994, under the Indian Copyright Act, 1957, after a long delay. The basis for recognition of performer\u2019s rights stems from the need for recognition of rights of performers as well as the need for sharing of the proceeds from the commercial exploitation of the visual or acoustic performances of actors, musicians, singers or dancers.<\/p>\n
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This week, we shall be discussing the judicial approach in India towards the performer\u2019s rights, in relation to the cinematographic works and the entertainment industry. However, before we begin the discussion on the aforesaid topic, it should be admitted that there is a dearth of litigation on the law relating to Performer\u2019s rights, a reason that can be attributed to the fact that law in India at this point is still in a nascent stage.<\/p>\n
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The earliest cases on Performer\u2019s rights, owing to the non-recognition of Performer\u2019s rights under the Indian copyright law, completely denied the existence of rights of Performers. In Fortune Films International<\/em> v. Dev Anand<\/em> [AIR 1979 Bom 17], the Honourable Supreme Court stated that an actor in a film has no rights over his performance in the film. However, this position changed in 1994 with the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 extending recognition to Performer\u2019s Rights with the inclusion of Sections 38 and 39. In 2003, the Delhi High Court, in Super Cassettes Industries <\/em>v. Bathla Cassette Industries<\/em> [107 (2003) DLT 91], while establishing that performer\u2019s rights were different from copyright, held that re-recording of a song without the authorization of original performer constituted an infringement of the performer\u2019s rights. This decision marked an important step forward by the Indian judiciary, with respect to the recognition of Performer\u2019s rights in India. As \u2018performance\u2019 under the Indian Copyright Act has been defined as any visual or acoustic presentation made live<\/u> by one or more performers<\/em>, the Delhi High Court, in Neha Bhasin<\/em> v. Anand Raj Anand<\/em> [2006 (32) PTC 779 Del.], addressed the question of what would constitute a \u2018live performance<\/em>\u2019. The Court observed that \u201cEvery performance has to be live in the first instance whether it is before an audience or in a studio. If this performance is recorded and thereafter exploited without the permission of the performer, then the performer\u2019s right is infringed.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Apart from the aforementioned, there doesn\u2019t seem to have any significant decision in India that is related to Performer\u2019s rights. As mentioned earlier, performer\u2019s rights were recognized in India after a long delay. Furthermore, there is a lack of judicial decisions relating to the rights of performers. These are perhaps the primary reasons why the law relating to Performer\u2019s rights is still at a rudimentary stage, in India.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Authored by Nithin V. Kumar<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This post discusses the evolution and judicial recognition of performers rights under Indian Copyright Law, highlighting key cases and ongoing legal challenges. It provides an objective analysis of the current state and limitations of performers rights in India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":138,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[920,51,1043,5,7641,5619,7642,809],"class_list":["post-30859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-copyrights","tag-copyright-act","tag-entertainment-law-2","tag-indian-copyright-law","tag-intellectual-property","tag-judicial-decisions","tag-legal-analysis","tag-performer-rights-cases","tag-performers-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30859"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133537,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30859\/revisions\/133537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}