Copyright Laws and Settlement of Music Copyright Infringement Case in the Court of Nepal

Copyright Laws and Settlement of Music Copyright Infringement Case in the Court of Nepal

Music has been an integral part of society since medieval times. It remained within the boundaries of art and culture, but with changes in technology, creators of music and people associated with music turned themselves into professions. Hence, music as a product, music creators, singers, record labels, music publishers, recording studios, music producers, and many more associated with music became members of the music industry. The digitalization of the music industry expanded the periphery of the musical business, which raised an issue of copyright infringement as well. The Nepalese musical industry also faces problems of copyright infringement. Thus, to cope with the issue of music infringement in Nepal, the copyright laws tried to address the issues and provide legal remedies for the problems of music infringement. The paper has gone through the legal provisions related to the protection of the copyright of music in Nepal and conducted a case study analysis of the court case settlement. The paper found that in most cases related to the issue of copyright infringement, the issue is settled at the district court or the appellate court (now the high court). Since a single case related to infringement on the music sector reached the Supreme Court, the paper analysed the case and found that the court argued that the argument of the plaintiff, the Government of Nepal, was not valid as the plaintiff did not fulfil the proper legal procedure.