Two sports bars in Bengaluru face music over violation of Copyright Act

BENGALURU: The city police have registered three FIRs against Sancum Club at Chancery Pavilion Hotel and two units of Xtreme Sports Bar for playing some Bollywood songs in public in violation of the Copyright Act.

Novex Communications, the authorised agency of Yash Raj Films to grant public performance rights to the third party who are communicating their content in public places, has filed a complaint in this regard.

The FIR against Sanctum Club has been registered at Ashoknagar police station, while the Banasawadi police have registered FIR against Xtreme Sports Bar unit at Kalyan Nagar. The other unit of the bar on Indiranagar 100 Feet Road has been booked by Indiranagar police. It is alleged that the Sanctum Club and Xtreme Sports Bar in Indiranagar played tune maar entriyaan from the movie Gunday, while the Xtreme Sports Bar in Kalyan Nagar played dance pe chance from the movie Rab Ne Banadi Jodi without permission.

The managers and others related to the joints have been named as accused. All the FIRs have been registered under Sections 63 (offence of infringement of copyright or other rights) and 69 (offence by companies) of the Copyright Act.

A spokesperson for Novex Communications said that the joints against which complaints have been filed had played the music illegally during the event they organised recently. “We had information that they were playing the songs for which they had not obtained permission from our company. Our staff had bought tickets for the events organised by them and the songs for which we have copyrights, were played there. Our staff have recorded it and submitted it as  evidence to the police,” the spokesperson said.