BUSINESS LAW

A Presentation by,
Aabild William
Akshaya
Kaaviya
Lokkesh
Sujit
 Agreement

• Definition:An agreement between private parties creating mutual obligations

enforceable by law. The basic elements required for the agreement to be a
legally enforceable contract are:
• Mutual assent
• Expressed by a valid offer and acceptance
• Adequate consideration
• Capacity
• Legality
 Contract
• A contract is a written or expressed agreement between two parties to
provide a product or service. There are essentially six elements of a contract
that make it a legal and binding document.
• In order for a contract to be enforceable, it must contain:
• An offer that specifically details exactly what will be provided
• Acceptance, which is the agreement by the other party to the offer presented
• Consideration, money or something of interest being exchanged between the parties
• Capacity of the parties in terms of age and mental ability
• The intent of both parties to carry out their promise
• Legally enforceable terms and conditions, also called object of the contract
 Copyright

• Copyright protects the rights of authors, i.e., creators of intellectual property in the form of
literary, musical, dramatic and artistic works and cinematograph films and sound recordings.
• The rights that are protected includes,
• reproduce the work
• issue copies of the work to the public
• perform the work in public
• communicate the work to the public.
• The Copyright Act 1957 governs the subject of copyright law in India. The Act is applicable from
21 January 1958. The history of copyright law in India can be traced back to its colonial era under
the British Empire.
 Owners of Copyrights

The following are the owners of the copyrights:

• In musical sound recordings: lyricist, composer, singer, musician and the
person or company who produced the sound recording
• In works by journalists during their employment: in the absence of any
agreement to the contrary, the proprietor
• In works produced for valuable consideration at the instance of another
person: in the absence of any agreement to the contrary, the person at
whose instance the work is produced
 CASE DETAILS

• Music Maestro Mr. Ilayaraja had sold his music composition rights to Echo
Recording company during 1980.
• It was about distribution of his composition on cassettes with an agreement
to get money as royalties from the recording company.
• It was also agreed that the composition can only be used in theatres and his
composition should not be used in online music portals, radio stations and
reality shows.
 CASE DETAILS

• Later Ilayaraja had filed a case against Echo under royalty issues in 2014 claiming
that he didn’t get money as royalties from the recording company.

• He had stated that the private firm had commercially exploited his music without his
knowledge.

• The case is observed with reference to Indian Copyright Act (1957).

 Indian copyright act (1957)

• 18. Assignment of copyright.— (1) The owner of the copyright in an

existing work or the prospective owner of the copyright in a future work
may assign to any person the copyright either wholly or partially and either
generally or subject to limitations and either for the whole term of the
copyright or any part thereof:
Provided that in the case of the assignment of copyright in any future
work, the assignment shall take effect only when the work comes into
existence.
 Copyright Amendment (2012)

• 1[Provided further that no such assignment shall be applied to any medium or mode of exploitation
of the work which did not exist or was not in commercial use at the time when the assignment was
made, unless the assignment specifically referred to such medium or mode of exploitation of the
work:
Provided also that the author of the literary or musical work included in a cinematograph
film shall not assign or waive the right to receive royalties to be shared on an equal basis with the
assignee of copyright for the utilization of such work in any form other than for the communication to
the public of the work along with the cinematograph film in a cinema hall, except to the legal heirs of
the authors or to a copyright society for collection and distribution and any agreement to contrary shall
be void:
Provided also that the author of the literary or musical work included in the sound recording
but not forming part of any cinematograph film shall not assign or waive the right to receive royalties to
be shared on an equal basis with the assignee of copyright for any utilization of such work except to the
legal heirs of the authors or to a collecting society for collection and distribution and any assignment to
the contrary shall be void.]
 Indian copyright act (1957)

• (2) Where the assignee of a copyright becomes entitled to any right comprised
in the copyright, the assignee as respects the rights so assigned, and the
assignor as respects the rights not assigned, shall be treated for the purposes of
this Act as the owner of copyright and the provisions of this Act shall have
effect accordingly.
• (3) In this section, the expression “assignee” as respects the assignment of the
copyright in any future work includes the legal representatives of the assignee,
if the assignee dies before the work comes into existence.
 Judgement Passed

• The ruling made clear that the 2012 amendment to the Copyright Act vested a composer with
full rights of his/her musical works including sound recording. Justice Sumanth lamented that
Indian citizens have not been kind to their creators and geniuses, whose works are exploited “to
generate benefits for corporate interests”.
• Amendments in the Copyright Act provide for the creator not assigning or waiving the right to
receive royalty that will be shared equally with the producer. Therefore, the judge said Ilaiyaraja
held complete copyright to his works except where a “sound recording” was a part of a film.
• The judgement gives the first ownership of a creation to its creator and provides for total
copyright of such creations. The ruling could, from now on, form the basis on which the rights of
a creator or a composer can be made absolute so that he/she can enjoy the fruits of his/her
labour, creativity and ingenuity.
Thank You
