MUMBAI: The Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2010 was introduced in the Rajya Sabha today (19 April, 2010) minister of Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal.

The Bill seeks to give independent rights to lyricists, composers and singers as the authors of literary and musical works in films. If passed, the Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2010 will allow professionals like authors and lyricists to get royalties and other benefits from the commercial exploitation of their work. Currently, the right to receive royalty lies with music companies and producers.

The Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2010 also addresses the concern of the music industry that has been complaining about “version recordings” of original songs and depriving music companies of royalties.

The Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2010 gives the producer and the director joint ownership of the copyright, thus giving more power to directors. Until now, producers were the sole owners of copyright.

Sibal said, "This legislation will help artistes and encourage a lot of new talent from the grass roots level."

It may be recalled that the government had formed a 10 member committee comprising Aamir Khan, Mukesh Bhatt, Javed Akhtar, Vishal Bharadwaj, Vishal Dadlani, Prasoon Joshi, Boney Kapoor, Anjum Rajabli, Madhu Mantena and T-Series CMD Bhushan Kumar to look into the proposed amendments to the Copyright Act.

The reaction from different segments of the film fraternity industry to the various changes in the Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2010 remains to be seen.