The Plaintiff is the rightful owner of copyright in the music album 'Kamasutra - Moods of Love', with the court ruling that oral agreements regarding copyright assignments are insufficient under the Copyright Act.

JUDGMENT

Prathiba M. Singh, J. (Oral)

1. The Plaintiff-Mr. Abhishek Ray has filed the present suit for declaration and permanent injunction, rendition of accounts, damages, delivery up, etc. The suit is filed against four Defendants, namely, Mr. R. Paul (Defendant No.1), Mr. Michael Menezes (Defendant No.2), Showtimes Events (India) Pvt. Ltd. (Defendant No.3) and M/s The Storytellers (Defendant No.4).

2. As per the Plaint, the Plaintiff is a well-known music composer-singer and he has several prestigious albums both in Indian and in the international market. The profile of the Plaintiff is that he has been composing music for television channels including Doordarshan, Star, Sony, Zee, etc. The Plaintiff has composed music for more than 500 television serials aired on various channels. The feature films and documentaries for which the Plaintiff claims to have composed music are:

• `HAASIL',

• `MISSION MUMBAI',

• `AHISTHA AHISTHA',

• `PAL PAL DIL KE SAATH',

• `MAHARAJA OF JODHPUR'

3. Defendant No.3 - Showtimes Events (India) Pvt. Limited is a company run by Defendant No.1- Mr. Rohin Paul and Defendant No.2- Michael Menezes. Defendant No. 3 is engaged in the business of creating, staging and managing various events and shows in India and across the world. The said Defendant is also engaged in the entertainment industry. Defendant No.4- M/s The Storytellers is an entity engaged in the business of making ad films and is not a contesting party. The said Defendant has already been proceeded ex parte vide order dated 04th April, 2008. The case of the Plaintiff is that he composed, arranged, sung, recorded and produced a music album in September, 2004 called `Kamasutra - Moods of Love'. The album consisted of the following seven songs:

i. Yeb Kya Ho Raha Hai,

ii. Behka Behka,

iii. Mujme Hai Ek,

iv. Kamasutra Theme,

v. Dil ki Gufa Se,

vi. Ke Tere Bin Saawan, and

vii. Ishq To.

4. The Plaintiff claims that all the seven tracks are his own compositions and were recorded in his own studio in Delhi. Various instruments recorded on different individual tracks were merged through a multi-track computerized recording platform and finally the audio album was created. The compositions of the Plaintiff being original and the Plaintiff having composed and produced the album himself, it is the case of the Plaintiff that he is the author of the compositions and the sound recording as per Sections 2(d)(ii) and 2(d)(v) of the Copyright Act, 1957 (hereinafter `Act') and also the owner of the underlying works including the lyrics, the musical compositions, etc within the meaning of Section 17 of the Act.

5. According to the Plaintiff, Defendant No.2- Mr. Michael Menezes approached the Plaintiff in June 2005 and expressed interest in producing an international musical incorporating the music compositions contained in the album - `Kamasutra - Moods of Love'. The Plaintiff had earlier worked with Defendant No.3 company in the past as a composer and singer. Various meetings took place between the parties and Defendant Nos.1 to 3 agreed to produce the musical. It is the case of the Plaintiff that the Plaintiff merely agreed to assign the `right to use' the musical compositions to the Defendants for the proposed musical. All other rights in the sound recordings and music compositions were retained by the Plaintiff.

6. As a precursor to the production of the said musical, a promotional video was also recorded admittedly by Defendant Nos.1 to 3 which consisted of the Plaint