Continuing its aggressive copyright enforcement, Saregama sued Viacom on 28th February, 2013 on the grounds that its latest production ‘Special 26’, which was released in theatres on 8th February, 2013 had infringed its copyright in the lyrics and music of the sixties songs ‘Mere Sapno Ki Rani’ (Queen of my dreams), which featured in Aaradhana. Apparently, ‘Special 26’ had a scene where one of the lead actors Anupam Kher, uttered about 4-5 words from ‘Mere Sapno Ki Rani’, over a period of less than 7 seconds leading to the copyright infringement lawsuit by Saregama.
The order can be accessed over here.
This is not the first time that Saregama has sued for infringement over a few seconds. Last February, in a case that we covered over here, Saregama was successful in getting an injunction for a copyright claim for about 11 seconds that featured in Rockstar.
The same judge who heard that previous lawsuit, Justice I.P.Mukherjee denied Saregama relief, in this lawsuit on the grounds that first, there was no infringement in the music since the words were not narrated in the particular melody of the original; second, there was no originality in just the words ‘Mere Sapno Ki Rani’ (The Romeos of India have long claimed ownership of those words) and third, the use of less than 7 seconds was de minimis and not worthy of a legal claim. For the last proposition, the judge relied on the judgment of the Delhi High Court in the case of India TV Independent News Service Private Limited & Others v. Yashraj Films Private Limited.
Justice Mukherjee wraps up his analysis with the following words “Let us assume that the rendition of those four words was infringement of the plaintiff’s copyright in the lyrics. It has no impact, no effect and causes no loss to anybody. It is trifling. It is minimal.”
In my opinion Justice Mukherjee's order was well-reasoned. It remains to be seen whether Saregama appeals the order to a larger bench of the Calcutta High Court.
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