AgentOpossum3416
Rock ‘n Roll in Bangladesh: Protecting Intellectual Property Rights…
Rock ‘n Roll in Bangladesh: Protecting Intellectual Property Rights in Music
CASE:
‘”It’s daylight robbery in Murder,” screamed a cult Bangladeshi rock band, and its plea has been heard’, writes the Telegraph of Calcutta in its front-page story on ‘tune-lift’ in the Hindi movie Murder (Telegraph, 20 May 2004). Miles, a very popular Bangladeshi music band (see box (Links to an external site.)) has accused music director Anu Malik, a music-mogul of the Mumbai movie world, of committing pure piracy of one of its original compositions.
On receiving messages from fans in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and India that their song ‘Phiriye Dao Amar Prem’ (Give me back my love) had been copied in the soundtrack of Murder, Manam, Hamin and other members of Miles collected a copy of the movie and sat down to watch it themselves. When the song ‘Jana Jane Jana’ was being played, the band members could hardly believe their ears. Only the language was different Hindi. Otherwise, ‘the lyrics are a shadow of ours, the tune is the same. Even the beat break-ups, the use of guitar and filler notes are the same. How could Anu do such thing?’ wondered Hamin, one of the guitarists and vocalists of Miles. ‘Even when a musician is inspired by a song, he can only copy eight measures. But this is a complete copy of Phiriye Dao,’ added Hamin (Bombay Times, 18 July 2004).
The Bengali song ‘Phiriye Dao’ was composed by Miles for its music album ‘Prathasa’ (Hope) in 1993. It was released in Bangladesh and Pakistan. In 1997 this same song was included in a music album named ‘Best of Miles, Vol. 1’ released by the Asha Audio Co. of Calcutta, and it became very popular in both Bangladesh and West Bengal, India.
Now the song has been used in the soundtrack of the Hindi block-buster movie Murder without, of course, the permission of its original composers.
The Mumbai (previously Bombay) movie world known as ‘Bollywood’, in imitation of the United States’ Hollywood, earns millions of dollars by producing and exporting its films, typically including music and dance, romance and comedy, all over the world, including Bangladesh. Compared with India’s, Bangladesh’s movie/music production is just a dwarf. Bangladesh runs a huge trade deficit with India, and the import of movies/music from India contributes significantly to it.
Under such circumstances, copying and reproducing a Bangladeshi song without any payment of royalties is not only unethical but also a blatant violation of the intellectual property rights recognized by the World Trade Organization. It hurts, in this particular case, the business interests of the Bangladeshi rock band Miles.
‘Just as Santana cannot leave a concert without performing “Black Magic Woman”, we cannot conclude a concert without performing “Phiriye Dao”. Our songs have a huge potential for the non-Bengali audience. We had planned to release their Hindi versions. Our plans to go Hindi are in jeopardy. We are open to singing for Hindi films too. The offer should have come to us’, said Hamin in a description of how the copying of their song had hampered Miles’ prospects, including, of course, business prospects (Bombay Times, 18 July 2004). And it goes without saying that since Bangladesh is the ‘home’ of Miles, so when its business interests are hurt, Bangladesh’s business interests also are hurt.
Questions:
Identify the legal issues in the case
Who are the major players in the case?
Do you agree with the decision of the WTO in this case? Provide reasons for agreeing or disagreeing.
