The court applied the de minimis principle to determine the triviality of copyright violations and the lack of harm caused, influencing the decision to dismiss the applications for interim relief.

PRADEEP NANDRAJOG, J.

1. Application(s) seeking interim injunction pending disposal of the suit(s) have been decided by the learned Single Judge vide impugned order dated November 11, 2011. In the two appeals we are concerned with only two suits.

2. Eschewing reference to the facts of CS(OS) No.2282/2006 filed by Super Cassette Industries vs. Mr.Chintamani Rao & Ors., for the reason no appeal has been filed before us pertaining to the impugned order insofar the defendants of said suit have been injuncted in terms of the interim relief prayed for, the facts pertaining to the other two suits i.e. CS(OS) No.2283/2006 and CS(OS) No.1706/2006 are that the defendants, in one suit had used the first line of the lyrics of a hit song in the cinematographic film „Bunty Aur Babli?: „Kajra Re Kajra Re Tere Kare Kare Naina?in an advertisement broadcasted during a TV programme and in the other programme, during a chat show:

INDIA BEATS, a budding singer, on the threshold of fame, during course of the chat sang nine stanzas, either in full or in part, from songs which had made the young artist famous; when the artist sang five out of nine times, clippings from the cinematographic film concerned were displayed with intervals in the background. The learned Single Judge has found this to be objectionable and has thus restrained the defendants from doing so during the pendency of the two suits.

3. At the outset we may note that Ms.Pratibha M.Singh, learned counsel for the appellants/defendants conceded that without obtaining a license from the owners of the cinematographic films her clients were in the wrong when the clippings from the cinematographic films were broadcasted in the background when the young budding singer, during course of the chat show sang, in full or in part, from nine stanzas of songs which were originally sung by her.

1. 4. The issue before us was debated on the remainder acts of the defendants i.e. use of the sound recording (only one line) from the song „Kajra Re Kajra Re Tere Kare Kare Naina?; and the singer who had lent her voice to the lyrics when the sound recordings of the nine songs were recorded, sang at a chat show, in full or in part, nine stanzas from nine songs; seven of which were from different cinematographic films.

2. 5. In a nutshell, the learned Single Judge has held that other than with the permission of the owner of a copyrightable work, it is only Section 52 of the Copyright Act 1957 which privileges use of copyrightable works and that the said section does not include derivative copyrightable works and cinematographic films, and thus has concluded, by opining that a derivative copyrightable work such as a sound recording cannot be appropriated, even in the minutest part, by any person for whatsoever purpose it may be. Needless to state, the two offending acts being, either a small part of a sound recording being physically lifted or a singer singing from parts of songs i.e. sound recordings, the injunction followed. The learned Single Judge has also considered the argument: whether the use was fair use, probably for the reason even this aspect of the matter was extensively argued before the learned Single Judge. Noting various decisions but by highlighting the opinion in the decision reported as 401 F. 3d 647 (6th Cir. 2004) Bridgeport Music Inc v. Dimension Films in which the view taken was that howsoever small it may be, copyright law prohibits a physical lifting from a sound recording, has held; and the reasoning of the learned Single Judge is not clear, that the

fair use defence was not attracted. The reasoning of the learned Single Judge appears to be on both counts of the issue i.e. that the fair use defence was not available to a sound recording and also that the uses in question were not a fair use. We may highlight that the learned Single Judge appears to have dovetailed the issue of a part of a sound recording being used i.e. de minimis with the fair use defence.

1. 6. On the subjec