No New Year music, errant hotels told

CHENNAI: One more setback has come as a bolt from the blue to dampen the spirit of New Year revellers.  The city might fall short of venues to celebrate and welcome the New Year this time around as the Madras High Court has restrained certain hotels, restaurants and pubs in the country from  playing music at their year-end events as they had not paid the music licence fee to the Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL). The injunction was given by Justice RS Ramanathan while passing interim orders on a petition from PPL on December 23.The hotels restrained in the city include Hotel Dee Cee Manor and The Spring Hotel in Chennai,  Hotel Pondicherry Ashok in Puducherry and  Heritage Inn,  Alankar Grande and City Tower in Coimbatore. Originally, the PPL had issued notices to all the hotels which had not paid the music licence fee across the country. As they had not remitted the fee, the PPL moved the Madras High Court, which granted the injunction, last week.According to PPL CEO Vipul Pradhan, New Year parties attracted people, promising them a good time through a combination of entertainment, food and beverage. “A significant component of the sum charged from the customers was for music, an integral element of entertainment. Therefore, the music companies, whose sound recording was regularly used, had the right towards claiming their due because their product was getting ‘consumed’ too,” he said.Under Section 35 of the Indian Copyright Act, playing commercial music in public without paying the requisite licence fee was an offence punishable with three years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2 lakh. This section granted exclusivity to PPL to issue licences to hotels/ pubs for playing music during the events on their premises. The tariff for the same was calculated on the basis of the number of hours the music was to be played and the number of people expected to attend the event. Any performance of Indian or even international music in public places or commercial establishments such as hotels, resorts and restaurants, rendered without having obtained a licence from PPL, constituted an infringement of  copyright under the Copyright Act, 1957.