Hyderabad: Event organisers protested in front of the Phonographic Performance Limited office at Lakdikapul on Saturday.
Event organisers alleged that PPL was charging huge licence fees on behalf of music companies by claiming to have copyright on the songs that are played at events, but had not produced the relevant papers.
“We want to know the authority vested with PPL. Despite repeated requests, PPL is yet to show the original copy of registered documents assigning them to collect licence fee,” said Mr Neeraj Thakur, general secretary of the Telangana Chamber of Event Industry. He alleged that PPL had not listed the songs for which it holds rights nor shown the amount that needs to be paid as fee.
“While music licence fee is based on songs worldwide, PPL is calculating the fee based on the number of guests at the event and the duration of the show. They are using the police to threaten us,” he alleged.
PPL executive B. Srikanth Naik said the organiser was empowered by Section 30 of the Copyright Act to collect the fee, which had been upheld by several courts. “They went to court and the case is pending for a year. If we do not have the right to collect copyright fee, why don’t they get a stay order,” he said.
