Chennai: After sending a legal notice to SP Balasubrahmanyam for not seeking permission to use his songs, Ilayaraja has now sent an e-mail to a Karaoke app-based Smule to remove his songs from the company's database.
Speaking to CNN-News 18, E Pradeep Kumar, Ilaiyaraja's copyrights consultant, said: "We sent them (Smule) an e-mail, stating that if they have not taken permission, they should put it (Ilayaraja's composition) down. The notice was sent last week. They replied asking what they should to do next. "
Ilaiyaraja's copyrights consultant added that the app minted money by charging people and hence they decided to take action. "They’ve been using Ilaiyaraja's composition for years. Each and every composer has his or her own rights to stop such commercial activities. The app charges people Rs.1100, but there is no investment for him. See, we never go and stop fans who are really enjoying the content.
"So, there are two clarifications. It is not that we asked them to take permission. We know every fan has rights, they’re supposed to enjoy the songs of Mr. Ilayaraja for the love they have for him. But somehow we want to restrict people who take huge money from the people and don’t take permission from the content owners. Every composer has the right to gain their content rights, but no one is doing except Ilayaraja."
Ilayaraja's team also reiterated that copyrights law is not stringent in India unlike in the U.S. Add to that, they say people and companies can use Ilaiyaraja's content provided they don't charge money from the public.
A similar case happened in March this year when SP Balasubrahmanyam and other renowned singers used Ilaiyaraja's composition for events organised in the US. Balasubrahmanyam, who was accompanied by singer Chitra on the world tour, took to his Facebook account to share his thoughts on the issue. In the post, Balasubrahmanyam said that he wasn’t aware of the legalities involved, but also mentioned that he’d obey the law.
He wrote, “Couple of days ago, an Attorney, representing Shri. Iliaya Raja, sent legal notices to me. Smt. Chithra Charan, organisers of the concerts in different cities and the management of all the venues, which says that we are not supposed to perform compositions of Shri. Iliayaraja without his permission, if so, it is breaking the copyright law and have to pay huge financial penalties and face legal action. Let me say, I am ignorant of these legalities.”
“My Son designed this world tour and we kick-started this SPB50 concert tour in August in Toronto, then we performed in Russia, Srilanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai and did a lot of shows in India, too. I did not get any feelers from Shri. Raja's office at that time. I don't know why we got the notice now when we started our US tour,” he added.
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