Plagiarism is Indian music’s first sin, which even the most respected of our music directors cannot claim to be innocent of committing at some point or the other. Name, fame, cut-throat competition, whatever the motive or reasoning, nothing can justify stooping to the level of passing off someone else’s work as one’s own. But sadly that’s the reality of the film and music world. It is welcome therefore that the wronged authors, composers and rights owners are no longer taking it lying down. Plagiarists deserve every bit of what’s coming to them and it’s a matter of considerable relief that copyright laws are being enforced much more strictly in India, as it should be.

It is observed that of late there has been a marked increase in plagiarism/copyright infringement cases involving music and movies which keep cropping pretty regularly. Though such cases are nothing new the increase does seem to indicate a growing conviction amongst aggrieved parties, that recourse can be had through court of law. While plagiarism has been rampant in Bollywood since donkey’s years, the slew of recent cases are a sure sign that times are changing and Bollywood can no longer take things for granted. People are a lot more aware of their rights and in the last decade, globalization has forced governments to enforce copyright laws a lot more strictly.

Last month Grammy nominated Canadian singer/composer Loreena McKennitt filed a case of copyright infringement against South Indian composer Deepak Dev, also an award winning composer, for the song Aaro Nee Aaro from the Malayalam film Urmi which is supposed to be copied from two of her songs, Caravanserai and The Mummers’ Dance. A stay has been brought against the release of the film in other languages, the Malayalam version of the film had already been released though.

This is not the first case though of foreign rights owners/ musicians suing Bollywood producers and composers. Two years back Sony BMG Taiwan had filed a case against Tips Industries over the song Zara Zara Touch Me composed by Pritam which they alleged was a copy of the song Deep in the Bamboo Grove by Wang Lee Hom, claiming damages of over US $ 300,000. Even earlier it is reported the Karan Johar the producer of Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gam had to cough up an undisclosed sum for using the hit song Its Raining Men by Spice girl Geri Halliwell in his film. Ironically the reverse is also true it would seem, as Saregama and Bappi Lahiri had successfully sued Universal Music, Dr Dre and singer Truth Hurts for using samples of the Bappi Lahiri song Thoda Resham Lagta Hai.

So ok its not that western artistes do not plagiarize, but the extent to which this happens in the west is a lot less because copyright laws are enforced strictly. In India its a free for all situation and for anyone interested in knowing about the extent of music plagiarism in India, just log on to the popular website itwofs.com which chronicles the entire shameful history. The site which is now over 10 years old, was set up by Karthik S, who in his everyday guise is the Head of Digital Strategy, Edelman India. Music directors/composers probably dread the day their names are listed on the website, but on second thoughts maybe they couldn’t care less.

One is reminded of the case involving music composer Ram Sampat and Raakesh Roshan which set a precedent of sorts a couple of years back. Just before its release Ram Sampat had dragged Roshan to court over infringement of his copyright of the Thump jingle he had done for a Sony Ericsson ad. Roshan had used the tune in two songs in his film Krazzy 4. The case was settled out of court with Sampat reportedly accepting a settlement of Rs 2 crore. It had created a furore in Bollywood at that time though many people including Aamir Khan and even Pritam (sic) came out in support of Sampat.

And its not only music, a number of films too have been embroiled in copyright controversies including Shah Rukh Khan’s Don 2, Rohit Dhawan’s Desi Boyz, Shahrukh Khan’s RA-One, Aamir Khan’s 3-Idiots, the Sanjay Dutt starrer Knockout, to name just a few. Even Hollywood has woken up to the reality of large scale plagiarism in Bollywood and not too long back 20th Century Fox had filed a case against BR Films for the Hindi remake of My Cousin Vinny titled Yeh Banda Bindass Hai, though BR was said to have been negotiating with Fox for the rights. The case was reportedly settled out of court for a sum of US $ 200,000. Warner Bros too had reportedly issued a notice in the press against the remake of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but Vipul Shah the producer of Action Replay purportedly based on the Hollywood movie, refuted the charges stating that his film was based on the 1994 Gujarati play titled Action Replay.

It is pertinent here to note that infringement cases are not all about large scale lifting, many pertain to contractual disputes over - non adherence/misinterpretations/non-accreditations, in relation to the terms and conditions of the agreements signed between parties concerned. It is therefore necessary today to be very specific as regards the terms of the contract drawn up between two parties to avoid cries of copyright infringement, as observed in some of the cases.

Plagiarism has probably existed from time immemorial. Put simply it means deliberately passing off someone else’s  ideas or works as one’s own. In reality however it is a lot more complex because legally this simple definition has numerous ifs and buts and copyright law is very clear on the fact that only the expression of an idea can be copyrighted not the idea itself. Then again the onus of proving that a work is plagiarized falls on the party claiming copyright infringement, which is by no means an easy task considering the complexities and ambiguities involved in defining of what work is copyrightable. The problem is compounded when you consider that a person plagiarizing someone else’s work will obviously try to cover it up by making changes by way of additions/subtractions in order to hide the fact and make it appear as his own. Another issue is the extent of copying that can be constituted as plagiarism, for example, sampling of older songs to create new songs and besides plagiarists often hide behind the words inspired by to justify their copying.

Adding to these complexities are those who point out that its pretty difficult to be totally insulated from our cultural influences and elements of these could easily creep into any work, often inadvertently. Here there is no willful intent to plagiarize but it happens just the same without the author/composer realizing it, so does it constitute plagiarism? What is implied here is that authors/composers/creators must exercise due diligence before they claim a work as their own but is this at all possible? There are many authorities who insist that elements of previous works are bound to be present in most new work.

Which brings us to deliberate plagiarism in context of any work, whether it’s a film, serial or song - it is mala fide. This sort of plagiarism is the resort of opportunists who calculate that the original work has already proved to be a big success and so the risk involved in investing in a successful formula is minimal. Moreover its convenient, you do not have to put a lot of time, effort and talent to create something original and lastly, you are able to get away with it. Which is a shame, but plagiarists don’t seem to care. Of course somebody does care - the author who created the original work or the rights owners. But what can they do? The only recourse is the law. In a country like India that would be just running from pillar to post and getting nowhere at the end of the day, at least till recently. But maybe the present trend bodes well for rights owners and struggling authors/composers who have been victimized or manipulated by established biggies.
Though India is a signatory to the Berne Convention and several international treaties including TRIPS, administered under the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), enforcement of copyright law in India has been pretty lax. For years Bollywood music composers and filmmakers have been notorious for lifting music, films and works of authors from around the world with total impunity. It had become so endemic, not only in Bollywood but the entire film and television industry in India that people routinely borrowed from or copied foreign films, tv serials and music. That this is wrong is not debatable but why it is so, certainly is. Are we to assume that our film and music industry is filled with people totally bereft of creativity and originality? It would be sad if that were the case. Today Bollywood may be approaching a point where it has no choice but to rethink its traditional mindset and this in turn could hopefully bring about a renaissance in originality and creativity. Necessity as they say is the mother of invention.

~ Stanley Paul