ITV

Tag: Copyright

  • Copyright challenges with globalisation of the Indian film industry

    Copyright challenges with globalisation of the Indian film industry

    NEW DELHI: Media lawyers Jamshed Mistry and Suneera Madhok have said categorically that copyright belongs to the filmmaker by right, simply because he or she has created a piece of art – film – and the right was inviolate.

    It is when these rights are transferred that copyright issues come to the fore. Unless sold outright (not advisable under any circumstances) all transfer of rights are temporary and applicable to the media/format, the geographical territory and for a given period.

    If these issues are taken care of through a contract, then issues of insurance come up to cover not-budgeted for legal expenses on cases thrust on the production/producer by some mischievous litigants, asserted insurance expert Maneck Dastur.

    These experts were taking part in a panel discussion on challenges following globalisation of the film industry in India. The discussion was moderated by writer and filmmaker Ramesh Tekwani. Filmmaker Brahmanand Singh also spoke at the discussion jointly organised by Entertainment Society of Goa and the Film Federation of India.

    Filmmaker and distributor Vincent Corda confirmed that no international co-production or distribution deal could be finalised unless the project is adequately insured. He went on to explain that besides the various development funds that existed to initiate and sustain project development, there was also a risk fund to cover such exigencies.

    Straying from films yet staying with entertainment, Entertainment Society of Goa CEO Manoj Srivastava wanted to know just how IPR applied to events; the system of collection of fees seemed to be in place but he was not quite sure how the IPR owners got their dues from the collections. As this flummoxed all, the Film Federation of India had been asked to tackle it at the industry level with a condition that it must take up the copyright issue as a full-fledged, daylong seminar and thrash out the issue in detail.

  • Passing the Copyright Amendment Bill will resolve many issues

    Passing the Copyright Amendment Bill will resolve many issues

    MUMBAI: How does one react on the issue of copyright when a person appeals to a Court to remove a dialogue of the Salman Khan starrer ‘Veer’ because this person had uttered it some years earlier?

    The filmmaker had to finally give in after which the dialogues were indeed deleted from the film on grounds that ‘the expression of the person while uttering the dialogue was copied.’

    Said Anand And Anand Managing Director Rahul Ajatshatru, “Our lawyers and judges are not well versed with the Copyright Act while talking about the subject or passing an order on this topic. It is time the Copyright Amendment Bill is passed.”

    Agreeing, Film Federation of India Secretary General Supran Sen said, “Some years ago the Mumbai High Court had said that if a particular video of a film is shown at home nothing happens, but if it is shown in society then copyright is infringed. This issue was challenged in the Madras High Court that said the Bombay High Court stand was wrong. Later it held that special courts should be set up to hear these matters.”

    The matter led to a lot of debate after which it was decided to come out with a Copyright Amendment Bill. But though this has been through the Lok Sabha, it is yet to get the approval of the Rajya Sabha. “Hopefully this would be done after the Budget session of Parliament,” opined Amarchand Managing Partner Shardul Shroff.

    The views were expressed during a discussion on the process of IP transfer and its legal ramifications in the specific case of film remakes during the FICCI Frames. RCL Motion Pictures head and producer Jagdish Rajpurohit, UTV Motion Pictures creative director Amar Butala, French Embassy, TV & Cinema head Deborah Benattar and International Federation of Film Producers Association former Director General Bertrand Mouiller also spoke.

    Referring to RCL Motion Pictures obtaining the copyright of the French film ‘L’emmerduer’, Rajpurohit said:” “When we approached the French film producers, they were a little inquisitive, but decided to give us the remaking rights after some thought.”

    But they will decide on associating with the Hindi remake ‘Bumboo’ after they come down to India and see whether the makers have followed the content verbatim or have deviated from the same. “I am sure they will be happy after watching the film and associate with our film,” observed Rajpurohit. The film releases in India on 31 July.

    Butala said: “These days things have changed a lot and producers don’t want to go to Court on matters of copyright infringement. They sort the matter amicably.”

  • Unseen footage of MJ’s Dangerous remains unsold

    Unseen footage of MJ’s Dangerous remains unsold

    MUMBAI: Unseen footage of Michael Jackson‘s 1993 Dangerous tour that was expected to fetch 4-5 million pounds failed to sell at an auction last Saturday in Britain.

    Around two hours long, the footage was shot by Jackson‘s own production crew and meant to be an intimate portrait of Jackson on tour. But the singer was unhappy with the quality and gave the only copy to his driver who was now trying to sell the footage, auction house The Fame Bureau said.

    Said a spokesman of the auctioneer who specialises in pop memorabilia, “We are still talking to people, but online it did not sell.”

    He was however confident that a buyer would be found, although nothing is a certainty. The auction house said that it had been forced to remove a brief clip of the video from its website before the online auction after Jackson‘s record label made a copyright claim.

    The fact that a successful buyer may not be able to use the film for commercial purposes may have dampened demand given the hefty asking price, but the spokesman played down the copyright dispute. “I don‘t think that was a problem at all,” he said, adding that any serious potential buyer would be fully aware of the issue.

    Items related to Jackson have skyrocketed in value since his death in 2009. The red and black leather jacket he wore for the Thriller video sold for $1.8 million in Los Angeles in June.

  • Salman Khan eyeing two Telugu films for remake

    Salman Khan eyeing two Telugu films for remake

    MUMBAI: After successfully remaking Pokkiri, Bodyguard, Ready and Kick, Salman Khan is now considering remakes of Telugu hit Kandireega and yet-to-be-released Dookudu.

    Reportedly, Arbaaz Khan recently contacted Bellamkonda Suresh, producer of Kandireega and asked him for a copyright of his film. Admitting the same, the producer said that not only Salman Khan, but also quite a few other directors have showed interest to remake Kandireega in Hindi.

    Khan also has fancy for Mahesh Babu’s ‘Dookudu’ and the actor wants to remake it in Hindi. He intends to finalise the project once he is back from US.