Your Wedding Sangeet Won't Violate Any Copyrights, Or Will It?

The Copyright Registry on August 27, 2019 released a public notification containing a much awaited clarification regarding public performance and sound recordings played during marriage ceremonies.

Weddings in India are a celebration of the sacred union between two people and in general, an extravagant affair for the parties. Ceremonies are conducted in grandeur fashion with splendid servings, bright colours and musical processions. Usually an unnoticed detail, but playing pre-recorded sound recordings by way of any medium during these ceremonies, as per the Copyright Act 1957, has always been considered a violation of the copyright subsisting in the owner's work, until now.

Under Section 51 (a) (i) of the Copyright Act, 1957, "when any person, without a licence granted by the owner of the copyright or the Registrar of Copyrights under this Act or in contravention of the conditions of a licence so granted or of any condition imposed by a competent authority under