'Krazzy 4' case highlights Bollywood's copyright woes

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Entertainment/Krazzy_4_case_highlights_Bollywoods_copyright_woes/articleshow/2952337.cms

Well, by now everyone would have already read or heard about this case. This is my understanding, Rajesh Roshan, the music director of Krazzy 4 liked some parts of Sony Ericson's advt. and wanted to use it in his song. Roshans approached Sony Ericson and got a no-objection letter from them. Now the twist in the tale is that I believe that Sony Ericson has no right to the tune! yes thats another part of discussion as to why is that IPR is NOT with the buyer of services to render to advt but with the composer!! but we will come to that later. Thus the NOC given by Sony was not worth much but presumably unknown to Roshans who went about releasing the music and working towards releasing the movies. In the meanwhile, Ram Sampath who was the original composer decides to stick in a court case right at the time the movie is to be released and tries to get a stay on the movie. Roshans panic and pay like 2crores !!

Now here is MY opinion, without much 'law' knowledge, going by common sense and ethics, I would say that Ram Sampath has acted in a very unethical manner! This is surely obvious in the way he waited till the last moment to stick in the court case after about six weeks of release of movie's music! Also, IF he was indeed ethical he should have NOT accepted out of court settlement or may be not at the least the kind of money he took from Roshans. That was sure shot taking advantage of someone's weak position! The court case and the stay order was all over the news so courts would have delivered justice sooner or later but Ram Sampth taking money from Roshans showed his intent was not really to get justice on plagiarism, if he didn't have any clue about Sony Ericson's NOC; but plain unethical extortion of money!

Well, for this exact reasoning I am completely FOR, yes for, NOT having any copyrights at all. Logistically its next to impossible to track and most often than not the copyright owners decided on exorbitant value of their IPRs. Take for example the DVD releases, One can get DVD originals of older movies for like Rs 40, but for newer movies it can be anywhere between Rs200 to 500!! This shows lack of ethics in the entertainment industry itself! They want to take the public on a ride and exhort money for public's interests in the movies! Even after making like Rs 100crore plus on movies, they still want to price the DVDs steeply at Rs499! Then when the DVD gets rampantly copied and sold in secondary market, they sit and complain about piracy!! Well, my point is they deserve it! :-) :D

PS: One day I want to also write about lack of ethics in todays world. I seriously think that lack of ethics leads to lack of guilt and repetition of wrong doing and makes this world worse place to live in. I remember reading an article to that affect as well; hhmm another day I will surely write about that.