MUMBAI: The Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL) is going innovative this festive season.
The licensing arm of the Indian Music Industry has decided to send its staff to select venues having year end bashes. The vigilance staff will attend the parties incognito and record the activities if the parties are found playing licensed music without paying the requisite fees. The PPL then plans to seek legal recourse and claim damages and penalty from the offending party organisers.
Till now, the PPL has been sending letters as well as legal notices to hotels and pubs and other venues which hold year end parties. While the licensing body has registered a 70 per cent increase in revenue collections thanks to the year long awareness drive to make organisers aware of the duty to obtain licenses to play music, there are chronic defaulters who continue to shirk the fees, says PPL’s national sales manager Sowmya Chaudhary.
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“We decided not to raid any venue or confiscate equipment this year, as that would ultimately hurt citizens who pay for the tickets to attend the bashes,” says Chaudhary. While the PPL has a staff of around 500 to conduct random checks during the festival season, it has decided to pick venues based on prior intelligence on default of payments. In places like Pune and Chennai, the PPL has obtained ex parte injunctions against venues which have defaulted on payments.
While cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore have been known as year end party hotspots, metros like Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune are also increasingly playing host to December bashes. Gurgaon and Noida are also emerging as the new year end party destinations with pubs and hotels mushrooming in developing areas.
Non-payment of fee can lead to up to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2,00,000. Under section 35 of the Copyright Act, playing commercial music without paying licence fee is an offence liable to contempt of court.
