In a video, music composer Ilaiyaraja — who has been vocal about his intellectual property rights being continuously breached — appealed to musicians to not perform his songs without authorisation.
“Dear musicians, performing my songs without prior authorisation is illegal,” he said.
“You must understand that it is wrong to perform my songs illegally and I would like to inform that legal action will be taken against those who do so,” the music maestro said.
Composer Ilaiyaraja further said that royalty would be collected by the South Indian Film Musicians Association.
“The singers will also be included in this association,” he said.
‘Not against musicians’
He reiterated that he was not against other musicians singing his compositions.
“The royalty has to be paid for the money you earn by singing my songs,” Ilaiyaraja said.
“If you sing my songs for free, you need not pay royalty. If you take money to sing my songs for a concert, don’t I deserve a small part from that money?” he said.
He underlined that he was only asking a small amount.
He said he was doing so only because royalties as a concept ought to be formalised in the future.
