Every time you paid for a caller tune, somebody earned from it — except often the people who wrote and composed the song. After a 14-year legal battle, a landmark ruling by the Calcutta High Court on May 8 has finally handed Indian lyricists and composers their due. As per the new mandate, telecom companies such as Vodafone Idea Limited have to secure a separate license from the Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS) to commercially use songs as caller tunes and ringtones.

Lyricist and screenwriter Mayur Puri, director at IPRS, tells mid-day, “The big corporates create roadblocks for the writers and music composers to be paid. This fight is not for the 10 to 20 big people, it’s for the poorest of the people working in the community,” he said.

While the 2012 Copyright Amendment Act granted creators royalty rights, corporates refused to comply. “Authors always had the right from 2012, but the problem was compliance,” Puri lamented. 

Until this judgment — hailed by creators as the industry’s ‘Magna Carta’ — companies only signed agreements with music labels or producers. “We have no access to those contracts. We don’t know how much a song was sold for. But now, if a company has to use a song, they will have to pay the producer, the label, the composer, and lyricist,” he said.

The Magna Carta was the 1215 charter that curbed the monarch’s absolute power. Similarly, the 2012 Copyright Amendment ensured creators could no longer be denied their 50 per cent royalty share, while the recent verdict enforced that right.

2012: The Indian Parliament passes landmark amendments to the Copyright Act, granting lyricists and composers royalty rights.

2018: IPRS files multiple lawsuits in the Calcutta High Court against telecom companies for refusing to pay creators.

2024: The court delivers the first major ruling in favour of creators.

2026: The High Court delivers its final verdict, ordering the release of pending payments to artistes.