KATHMANDU, June 21: The trend of uploading cover songs of retro Nepali songs in youtube is consistently increasing. Following the easy access and popularity of social media, various artists and film units have called to upload the cover songs and to post in the social media.
In the recent days, the trend has increased for the promotion of the film and for the self-promotion as well. The film entitled ‘Prem Geet-2’ organized the cover song competition through youtube. Similarly, as the song ‘Saili’ hit the top position in trending, singer Hemanta Rana called to prepare the and to post the cover song of this number.
Though, there are many cover songs that have hit youtube in recent days without consent and approval from the concerned artists. These cover songs have made good source of income from youtube. Yet youtube removes those kinds of cover song videos if the concerned artists file complaints against it.
“Most of the people are unaware of the copyright to use the songs without the consent from related artists, because of which the concerned artist have failed to protect their creations. We are coordinating with Nepal Police to protect the copyright of artists’ creativeness”, said Registrar Rajendra Sigdel of Nepal Copyright Registrar's Office. He added that the ignorance among the artist has facilitated to upload the cover songs without permission.
According to him, the songs can be used only for personal use not for commercial motive. Last year, Metropolitan Police Crime Division has filed one case against the breach of copyright.
Musicians in the making
“Initially, we try to settle down the dispute between two parties through mutual dialogue. However, we are receiving number of cases. We have launched the case of electronic evidence and cybercrime against them”, said DSP Pashupati Kharel of the division. The division is investigating the cases of piracy and copyright under his coordination.
Producer Shrawan Ghimire said that he has given approval for only two songs till now.
“We have given consent for only two songs. However, others songs of Nepali movies are being used without our permission due to the lack of the protection. It is really appreciable that the retro songs are being remixed and being featured as cover songs. But if they are being used commercially then it is unfair for the original concerned artists, “he said adding that the artists are getting united to solve the issue legally.
Last year, The Cartoonz Crew group uploaded the cover song of popular number ‘Fantastic (Pani Paryo)’ by Almoda Rana Uprety in youtube. After the dispute, youtube unpublished the song for few time, said Saroj Adhikari of The Cartoonz Crew. Youtube removed the song following the request from the singer.
“Initially there was dispute following which youtube removed the video. After the agreement with The Cartoonz Crew republished the song on youtube”, said singer Uprety.
Vijay Ghimire of VJ Music said that the trend of cover song is changing.
“We are preparing the cover song inserting the guitar tune without tampering the original song and we give credit to the original artist. In many cases, the original artists are not available”, he said.
According to the Copyright Act 2002, the copyright act does not attract the non-commercial use. However, the act facilitates to provide the compensation to the concerned party if the creativity is being used for commercial motive without consent of the originator.
The concerned party should be aware of the copyright provisions to protect their products as the act and provisions of copyright are strong in Nepal and digital platform like youtube as well.
