“Shah Rukh Khan and Chat Bot, Creative Commons Business Strategy, Shemaroo’s Criminal Complaint, Copyright Infringement of Jokes, Spotify’s continuing copyright infringements, Digital Licensing Growth, Licensing Tips, and other entertainment law news,” is presented by the Copyright and Entertainment law Attorneys and experts of BananaIP Counsels, India’s Premier New Age IP Firm.
COPYRIGHT QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Creative Commons has a lot to offer to the entertainment industry provided it is strategically merged with copyright commercialization strategy.”
– Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala, Renowned IP Attorney, Professor and Novelist.
INDIAN COPYRIGHTS AND ENTERTAINMENT LAW UPDATES
UNIVERSAL CABLE NETWORK IN COPYRIGHT TUSSLE WITH SHEMAROO ENTERTAINMENT
Times Of India reported that Shemaroo Entertainment filed a copyright infringement complaint before the Sitabuldi Police Station against the cable network, Universal Cable Network. Earlier, Shemaroo Entertainment licensed its songs to the Nagpur based Universal cable Network (UCN) for two years, 2015-2017. In its complaint, Shemaroo alleged that UCN failed to pay the agreed license fee of Rupees Twenty Nine Lakhs and continued to telecast its copyrighted songs even after the expiry of the Agreement in March 2017. The Sitabuldi Police conducted raids at UCN’s Ramdaspeth Office and registered a FIR against three directors of UCN.
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT AND ENTERTAINMENT LAW NEWS
CONAN OH! BRIEN, ARE YOUR JOKES NOT ORIGINAL?
The comic/joke writer, Robert Kaseberg, filed a suit before the US District Court against Conan O’Brien alleging copyright infringement. Kaseberg claims that Conan used his punchlines at least five times on his Late Night Show. US District Court accepted the petition and allowed the suit to proceed for trial. While allowing the petition the District Judge stated, “although the punchlines of the jokes are creative, they are nonetheless constrained by the limited number of variations that would (1) be humorous (2) as applied to the specific facts articulated in each joke’s previous sentence and (3) provide mass appeal. This merits only thin protection.”
SPOTIFY SUED FOR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT AGAIN
The Hollywood Reporter reported that two Nashville based content owners, Bob Gaudio (a songwriter and member of the bands Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons), and Bluewater Music Services Corporation, filed two separate copyright infringement suits against the online music and video streaming site Spotify. In both suits, Spotify is accused of streaming sound recordings without obtaining adequate licenses from the content owners. The suit involves unauthorized usage of around 2,500 sound recordings by Spotify. Last June, Spotify settled a class action copyright lawsuit filed by Camper Van Beethoven’s David Lowery and established a $43.4 million fund to compensate songwriters and publishers, whose content was used without adequate permissions.
ENTERTAINMENT LICENSING AND MERCHANDIZING UPDATES
DIGITAL PLATFORMS- THE FUTURE OF ECONOMIC GROWTH IN THE M&E INDUSTRY
A recent EY report titled ‘Digital Inflection Point: Indian Media and Entertainment’ predicted that the growth rate of digital platforms will exceed the growth rate of traditional mediums such as television, print and radio by 2021. Digital Platforms are expected to achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26% between 2016 and 2021.
CHAT BOTS FOR DIGITAL FILM MARKETING
The makers of the upcoming film ‘Jab Harry met Sejal’ starring Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma have introduced chat bots on Red Chillies Entertainment Facebook page, where the fans can interact with Shah Rukh Khan on social media. Chat bots enables users to create customised posters, participate in quizzes, view videos and win merchandise.
BIP TIP OF THE WEEK
ENTERTAINMENT LICENSING FOCUS ON DIGITAL PLATFORMS
Over the last three years, Digital Platforms have assumed very high importance from the entertainment licensing perspective in India. With quality content being available under subscription models at reasonable prices, many consumers, who were earlier resorting to online copyright infringement, are now moving to legal content consumption. The revenue from Digital Platforms is bound to increase substantially over the next five years, and it is only prudent for entertainment companies to capitalize on the same.
Some points entertainment companies may bear in mind in the said context are:
- Avoid bundling and licensing away different rights to the same licensee;
- Have shorter license terms for digital licenses; and
- Narrow down the scope of the grant and limit the platforms/technologies – several technologies such as AR, VR, AI, and so on are round the corner and granting away broad licenses is not advisable.
Authored by the Entertainment and Media Law Team of BIP Counsels.
BIP’s Entertainment and Media Law Team merges expertise in law, management and business to offer value added services. Having worked with some of the leading production houses like Yashraj Films, Dharma Productions, Television Channels, Aananda Audios, television networks like Zee TV, Fashion TV, etc., our team of experienced entertainment lawyers with interdisciplinary expertise offer state of the art business driven entertainment law services to clients. You may contact our Entertainment and Media Law team @ contact@bananaip.com
