PRS Calls On Indian Government To Act On Radio Royalties

Two recent court rulings that will have negative results for the rights of songwriters and publishers in India have been criticised by PRS For Music, a UK based publishing rights company, as they breach India's obligations under the Berne Convention.

PRS For Music is a society managing over 10million songs and musical works that works on behalf of artists and songwriters ensuring that they get royalties for their music, once recorded onto any format and distributed to the public, performed or played in public, broadcast or made publicly available online.

The Berne Convention is an agreement that ensures a minimum level of copyright protection for any songwriters and composers in any country that has signed up to it. PRS wants the Indian government to make sure that the Indian copyright law lives up to obligations set out by this agreement.

The court rulings will negatively affect royalties that songwriters and publishers should receive when their songs are played by radio stations.