Shah Abdul Karim’s family receives copyright royalty

Zafar Raja Chowdhury, former registrar of the Copyright Office and Bangladeshi audiovisual production company ZM Studios have recently paid Tk 15 lakh to Baul Shah Abdul Karim’s family as a royalty payment for his music, according to recent media reports.

Section 78 of the Copyright Act of Bangladesh states that a song cannot be commercially broadcast—as welcome tunes, on TV, YouTube, etc.—without the permission of the lyricist and composer, who owns the rights to the song.

After the death of Ekushey Padak-winning Baul Shah Abdul Karim, many used his songs commercially without taking permission from his family. Taking this situation into account, the Bangladesh Copyright Office registered the intellectual property rights of 472 songs by Abdul Karim in December of last year.

The songs were later archived on the website, shahabdulkarim.com. Under the supervision of Zafar Raja Chowdhury, former registrar of the Copyright Office, ZM Studios provided technical assistance in the development of the website, to help preserve Abdul Karim’s music.

Zooel Morshed, the owner of ZM Studios, said that now if anyone wants to sing Karim’s songs or perform them commercially, they must take permission from his family.

Accordingly, if his songs are uploaded to YouTube, Facebook and other websites, Shah Abdul Karim’s family will receive royalties, as they own the rights to the songs—since he was the lyricist and composer for most of his music. In just the last eight months, more than BDT 15 lakh has been given to Shah Abdul Karim’s family as a royalty payment.

Later, a certain amount of money is automatically deposited into the bank account of Abdul Karim’s family.

Before the copyright office stepped in to preserve Shah Abdul Karim’s music, they also preserved the musical legacy of Ayub Bachchu.