Ilaiyaraaja has a right to his compositions: District Court of Madras

The film music composer Ilaiyaraaja won a major legal battle Tuesday with the Madras High Court, saying that he had a right to the songs he had composed for different films over the years .

Judge Anita Sumanth decreed a civil suit brought by him in 2014 against a group of musical labels and dismissed an action brought against him by Agi Music, a Malaysian corporation, in 2013.

In his action, the composer had sought to restrict Agi Music and some other music labels monetizing the songs composed by him without his permission.

For its part, Agi Music accused the composer of violating the terms of a 2007 agreement under which he would have ceded the copyright of his songs to his wife, who would have entered into a licensing agreement sound recording (SRLA) with the plaintiff company.

On August 18, 2015, the first Divisional Court composed of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul (now Supreme Court Justice) and Judge TS Sivagnanam consolidated the actions and ordered a joint trial by a single judge of the court.

Subsequently, Judge Sathyanarayanan outlined eight outstanding issues in Agi Music's civil trial and fourteen in the composer's trial. The issues in issue concerned, inter alia, whether Ilaiyaraaja was entitled to claim the copyright in the songs composed by him for films produced by other persons for payment of remuneration. appropriate.

The other issues in dispute were whether he could be called the "owner" of the sound recordings of these films and whether the badignment agreement as well as the SRLA were legally valid.

It was also decided that the court would endeavor to determine whether Echo Recording had obtained the sound recording rights of individual film producers as it claimed and whether the composer was entitled to any compensation against the record label. music despite the agreements made between it and the producers.

Contrary to the process followed in other civil proceedings where a master of the court recorded the evidence, the first division chamber had appointed retired district judge B. Gokuldbad to record the evidence in court. prosecutions to ensure rapid elimination.

Once the evidentiary process was completed, Justice Sumanth, who heard many arguments from both parties, resumed the final hearing and recorded a great deal of documentary evidence before reserving his verdict. .

Ilaiyaraaja claimed to have composed more than 4,500 songs during his forty-year career, earning him the reputation of being the only one to have composed music for more than 1,000 films.

He accused music labels. to monetize his compositions without his permission.