Royalty Issues Crop Up As Mobile Ringtones Grow In India

SiliconIndia: As royalties from ringtones threaten to replace sales of CDs as the chief source of income for India's music industry a battle is brewing in Bollywood over who owns the ringtone rights...Bollywood has purchased the rights of songs from lyricists and composers for a one time fee for decades, and try to recoup the money through CD sales (which have to battle pirate copies). With the rise of ringtones musicians are saying that the rights are not included in the traditional fee and they should get the royalties rather than the movie producers.

"Bollywood does not know that such rights exist in the world," said Achille Forler, who runs a music publishing business in India called Deep Emotions that seeks to cater to these artists. "There has never been anyone in Bollywood who could monitor the rights." Once again technology outpaces business practices and law. (via Ringtonia)