An FIR has been was registered against Yash Raj Films Company and its directors (Aditya Chopra and Uday Chopra) for allegedly pocketing Rs. 100 crore by collecting music royalties of members of the Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS).
The FIR was registered by Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police, says this report.
The IPRS filed a complaint against the production house and have alleged that Yash Raj Films did not let them collect royalties from telecom companies, radio stations and music streaming platforms. The complainant said IPRS has the exclusive right to collect royalties on behalf of artists and music producers but the YRF collected it without authorization.
The case has been registered under sections 409 (criminal breach of trust) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the Copyright Act.
Since this being a legal case, no public statements have been released yet by Yash Raj films as well as IPRS.
MUSIC LABEL SCAM: MUSIC FIRMS MAKE 2500 CR. PROFIT BUT CHEAT ON PAYING ROYALTIES
ED (Enforcement Directorate) officials are investigating top music companies for their role in the ‘music label scam’ for laundering profits. Allegedly, top music companies made thousands of crores in profits but did not share royalties with composers, lyricists.
As per Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials, two top music companies alone earned a profit of Rs 2,500 crore between 2012 and 2017 but did not pay music composers and lyricists half of the amount as legitimate royalty (reports Mirror), which is a violation of the Copyright Act amended in 2012.
“Out of the profit of Rs 2,500 crore, the companies chose not to share the percentage of royalty against songs, in the mandatory 50-50 ratio, with the music composers and lyricists enshrined in amended Copyright Act of 2012,” said an ED official familiar with the investigations.
The government agency have questioned top officials from India’s finest and top music labels – Saregama, T-Series and Sony Music Entertainment India Ltd in connection with the scam that deprived scores of music composers and lyricists of their rightful royalty dues.
The scam involves the Indian Performing Right Society Ltd (IPRS), the copyright society of which music honchos, composers and lyricists are members and part of, and Phonographic Performance Ltd.
The ED decided to look into the Delhi Police case, lodged a few months ago, by singer Shubha Mudgal on the matter.
For a long time, few prominent Industry celebrities have been fighting for the rights of music composers and lyricists, to help them get an equitable share of revenue for their compositions and songs. With the unearthing of this scam, things could probably change for them going ahead.
