Indian Copyright Statistics, Fashion brand Christian Dior accused of plagiarism, “Aadhi” is copied claims writer, Petition filed against release of Aami, All India Radio Partnered with Amazon, Canada’s FairPlay lobby’s for an Independent Piracy Review Agency, Sony Music signs deal with Amazon and more is presented by the Copyright and Entertainment Law Attorneys and experts of BananaIP Counsels, India’s Premier New Age IP Firm
COPYRIGHT QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Without freedom to offend, freedom of expression ceases to exist”- Salman Rushdie
INDIAN COPYRIGHT STATISTICS
There was an increase of 27.89% in the total number of copyright filings compared to the last week. A total of 241 applications were filed for copyright registration during the last week. While most of the applications were filed for literary works and only 1 application was filed for registering Sound Recordings.
| Sr. No | Types of work | Number of Applications previous week | Number of Applications this week | Percentage change |
| 1 | Literary Works | 121 | 167 | 31.9% |
| 2 | Musical works | 17 | 26 | 41.8% |
| 3 | Artistic works | 21 | 32 | 41.5% |
| 4 | Cinematograph Films | 0 | 2 | 200% |
| 5 | Sound Recordings | 2 | 1 | 66.6% |
| 6 | Software | 21 | 13 | 40% |
| Total | 182 | 241 | 27.89% |
INDIAN COPYRIGHTS AND ENTERTAINMENT LAW UPDATES
FASHION BRAND CHRISTIAN DIOR ACCUSED OF PLAGIARISM
Orijit Sen, an Indian designer has accused the high-end fashion brand Christian Dior of plagiarizing his designs. Orijit claims that he created designs of a man doing yoga poses in 2000 and claimed that he was shocked to see an Elle India magazine cover with Sonam Kapoor wearing a printed dress that resembled his design. “I couldn’t believe they’ve copy-pasted my artwork and used it as part of an international collection,” Orijit said in his statement to NDTV.
“AADHI” IS COPIED CLAIMS WRITER
Jeethu Joseph, writer and director of Pranav Mohanlal’s Aadhi has been accused of plagiarism by V S Jayakumar, editor of Oliver Publication. Jayakumar claims that the story and plot of the recently released film was lifted from his story “Ente Weekend Party” published in 2011. He claims that his story was also published as a book which was released by Japanese director Ryota Nakano at International Film Festival of Kerala in 2013. “The story was submitted to the festival as part of its event ‘Project Speech’. I believe that Joseph got the story from Chalachitra Academy, the organizer of the festival” he said in a news conference. Jayakumar stated that he is planning to initiate a copyright infringement suit against Jeethu Joseph.
PETITION FILED AGAINST RELEASE OF AAMI
The Kerala High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the Central Board of Film Certification on a writ petition seeking a ban on the upcoming film Aami. The film is a biopic on the poet and author Kamala Das Surraya. The petition, filed by Kochi based lawyer KP Ramachandran, seeks to restrain the Board from issuing censor certificate to the film. He alleges that the film was made with the intention of justifying love jihad and that the Director had twisted and omitted details about Kamala Surraya’s life. “The conversion of Madhavikutty into Islam was the beginning of ‘love jihad’ in Kerala. The wrong picturisation of Das justifying forceful religious conversion would send the wrong message to viewers”, stated his petition.
ALL INDIA RADIO PARTNERED WITH AMAZON
India’s public service broadcaster, All India Radio has partnered with the e-commerce platform Amazon for the latter’s voice-controlled line of speakers, Echo. “Echo devices powered by the AI assistant Alexa will start streaming All India Radio services including FM radio, Vividh Bharati and 41 other services in next 10 days”, said Fayyaz Sheheryar, Director General Prasar Bharati.
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT AND ENTERTAINMENT LAW UPDATES
CANADA’S FAIRPLAY LOBBY’S FOR AN INDEPENDENT PIRACY REVIEW AGENCY
The coalition of Telecom and National Media companies of Canada called FairPlay has filed an application with the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Communications (CRTC) asking it to create an Independent Piracy Review Agency. The proposed agency will be responsible for reviewing all applications to block pirated websites and make recommendations to CRTC to block such websites.
LICENSING AND MERCHANDISING UPDATES
SONY MUSIC SIGNS DEAL WITH AMAZON
Sony Music recently signed a content licensing deal with Amazon for Prime Music. This deal with Sony Music gives Amazon access to a catalog which includes Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Beyonce, The Chainsmokers, Pharrell Williams, Camila Cabello, AR Rahman, Jagjit Singh, Gulzar, Lucky Ali, Colonial Cousins, Darshan Raval, and Badshah among others. The e-commerce company has previously signed similar deals with Saregama and Zee Music.
COPYRIGHT TIP OF THE WEEK
Taking down Infringing Contents
Monitoring and taking down infringing content is the key to prevent online piracy. IP holders must follow a well-planned content monitoring and take down system in order to prevent the infringing use of their copyrighted content.
Author: BIP’s Copyright and Entertainment Law Attorneys
Senior Partner, the entertainment law attorneys at BIP are among the well-known lawyers in the field. They work with clients such as Yash Raj Films, Dharma Productions, Ananda Audio, Anushka Sharma, Sushant Singh, and Arka Media (Producer of Bahu Bali). BIP’s entertainment law team helps clients protect, manage and effectively license and merchandise their creative works such as films, music, brands and other content, to maximize financial returns.
The weekly copyright and entertainment law news initiative is a part of their pro bono work, and is aimed at spreading entertainment law awareness. You are free to share the news with appropriate attribution and backlink to the source.
If you have any questions, you may write to BIP’s Copyright and Entertainment Law Attorneys – [email protected].
