Law letter
On the Copyright dilemma
The recent controversy in copyright law arose with the song 'Juboti Radhe', when one party claimed it to be their own lyrical composition whereas the other party claimed it to be a popular folk song. Copyright Law is quite wide in terms of its actual right claiming definition. In the arena of literature, dramatics, musical, artistic, cinematograph and sound recordings, it goes without adage that copyright is one of the most significant field of intellectual property related to the exclusive monopoly rights over any specific matter.
Copyright is a property right that subsists in certain specified types of works exclusively to the creator. The creator preserves the right of using that 'property' and everyone needs his consents in order to use that specific 'creation'. This is where the confusion and problem arise. In this era of digital media, it is quite hard for the users to protect and facilitate proper protection of the intellectual property rights of others. The popularity of social media apps like Tik Tok, Likee etc are actually giving access to the social media users of musical recordings without properly complying with the copyrights of the creator.
While granting the copyrights to any specific person, the authorities must have to stick to proper norms and methods along with proper research on this claim. Now, in a country like Bangladesh, where there is a huge number of internet users, the governing law, Copyright Act, 2000 needs to be updated in terms of protecting the intellectual property rights along with guiding the people in general. The authorities should now monitor the digital media policies in order to protect the intellectual property rights.
Razoana Moslam, Youth Internet Governance Forum, Sydney Institute, Australia