India's apex Hospitality Association - Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) and Event and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA) have come together to jointly address concerns faced by its members over copyright issues of broadcasting AV content. The two Associations will collaborate to come up with a cohesive strategy to address the common challenges faced by industry players against the oppressive practices of certain copyright societies or agents. The Associations aim to arrive at tariff rationalization in copyrights through a joint front and plan to engage with all concerned authorities regarding the issue that has been plaguing the industry for quite some time.
“Events and entertainment as an industry is a natural extension of the Hospitality ecosystem. EEMA and FHRAI’s collaboration will strengthen the existing ecosystem and synergise the relationship for a progressive working culture. One of our immediate plans is to make joint efforts to address the Copyright Issues for the benefit of our members by creating a cohesive strategy to address the common challenges across both industries effectively. Currently, the copyright societies impose unregulated tariffs and intimidate businesses with arbitrary non-compliance notices. There is no mechanism to challenge these agents and by coming together we are aiming to bring about tariff rationalization in copyrights,” says Mr. Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Vice President, FHRAI.
The two Associations plan to submit joint representations to all concerned Governmental authorities regarding the copyright issue.
Roshan Abbas, President, EEMA, said, “EEMA and FHRAI are a natural partners and it took us a decade to come together to finally work in tandem to take on the issues of the music copyright agents and the ever-changing copyright societies. We both vehemently oppose the agent agencies charging for music licence for weddings and wedding related functions as it's exempted under Section 52 (1) (za) of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957. We will be jointly working on many other matters like rationalising of the exuberant tariffs etc. and other matters of mutual interest for our respective industries.” |