NEW DELHI: The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) has ‘wholeheartedly’ welcomed the Amendments made in the half-century-old Copyright Act.
IBF applauded everyone who had been relentlessly working for the passage of the Copyright Amendment Bill, especially Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, Leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley.
IBF also expressed gratitude to Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni who had been instrumental in getting this historical bill passed by both houses of the Parliament.
Related Post
The Amendments will benefit every creative person in India, be it an author, composer or writer who has hitherto been deprived of his/her due so far. With this bill, the creator’s rights are upheld and respected and the amendments are a positive step in the right direction. It will beyond doubt help a large chunk of creative people in the country, where the largest number of movies and television programmes are made.
IBF also welcomed the provision for statutory licensing for broadcasting organizations, noting that radio and television broadcasting were growing sectors in the country and are an important medium to disseminate information, education, news, views and infotainment to the masses and general public.
Programmes relating to music compositions, talent hunts and reality shows amongst others had become popular on both radio and TV and involved the usage of songs and music in various ways.
Any copyright legislation needs to ensure that public interest is not compromised so far as ‘public access’ to information and entertainment in literary and musical works is concerned.
IBF said, “It is for serving this larger public interest of unhindered access to information in a smooth and non-discriminatory manner that Section 31D had been incorporated in the Act. It provides for the availability of content to any broadcasting organization through the mechanism of Statutory Licensing on the payment of royalty determined by the Copyright Board which will fix separate rates for radio and TV.”
The aim, IBF adds, was to ensure that the content becomes available to everyone desirous of the same without any discrimination and on reasonable royalties fixed by the Board, and at the same time ensuring the owners of copyright works do not suffer from any disadvantage
The Copyright (Amendment) Bill ‘has been and will be appreciated for the significant changes it will bring to the Broadcasting Industry.’
