Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL), Caught Between A Rock And A Hard Place!

The fallout from the Azure litigation discussed in my earlier post https://rnaip.com/phonographic-performance-limited-ppl-stumbles-in-a-music-licensing-dispute/ has put PPL in a tight spot. The dispute started over royalty payments for sound recordings licensed to PPL. The Single Judge of the Delhi High Court ruled in favour of PPL and stopped Azure from playing PPL's copyrighted works without a license. Azure appealed this decision to the Division Bench (DB).

Key Points from DB Ruling

The DB ruled that while there's no restriction on PPL licensing the sound recordings assigned to it, PPL would need to be a registered copyright society or a member of one to do so. The court noted that PPL is not a registered copyright society, although it was in the past. As an interim measure, the court allowed PPL to license the sound recordings for public performance, but under the terms and tariff rates of The Recorded Music Performance Ltd. (RMPL), as if PPL were an RMPL