HC to decide on copyright for old songs

MUMBAI: Bombay high court on Thursday said it will soon consider if reproduction of old traditional songs amounts to copyright violation and is liable for criminal action. A division bench of Justices B P Dharmadhikari and Revati Mohite-Dere admitted a petition filed by lyricist and song writer Pramod Surya and publishers Pukhraj Surya and Hiten Patel, seeking to quash an FIR lodged against them for copyright violation.
The petition stated that Surya had compiled old Marwari and traditional Gujarati songs, sung during marriages and other ceremonies, and published them in two books. In December 2014, Ashadevi Sonigada had filed a complaint at Malad police station alleging that Surya and the publishers had copied a song she had already published in her book.