Call to protect musicians’ rights

LAHORE : Intellectual Property Organisation of Pakistan (IPO-Pakistan) Chairman Mujeeb Ahmed Khan has said that music industry is the backbone of Pakistan’s culture and protecting the industry means safeguarding country’s cultural values and the Copyright Law is a tool to protect creators of this industry.

Speaking loud for the Copyright protection of music at a session on ‘IPO: Music and Copyrights in Pakistan’ at Lahore Music Meet (LMM), he said that the current Copyright law needed to enforce the musicians’ rights.

In order to overcome this issue, he went on to say, IPO-Pakistan is in the process of amending the Copyright Law. The new refined Copyright Law would have larger protection of the musicians’ rights.

The session was participated by musicians; including singers, poets, composers and others. The IPO chairman opined that in order to overcome the issues faced by the music industry, there should be performing rights societies so that musicians can collectively enforce and bargain for their rights.

He highlighted the linkage of Copyrights with the music industry and said there was a dire need to create maximum awareness among the stakeholders and the general public about this law.

Famous folk singers, including Akram Rahi, Gulzar Rana Adil Azhar and others asked different questions about the music rights during the question-answer session.