Popular Bangladeshi rock band Shironamhin has filed a written complaint to the Anti-Corruption Commission against audio production company G-Series, accusing it of violating copyright laws.
The letter says G-Series has been illegally and commercially exploiting their songs on YouTube and other digital platforms without proper authorization.
“The G-Series is illegally embezzling a huge amount of money by selling the band’s copyrighted songs like ‘Bondho Janala’, ‘Hashimukh’, ‘Jahaji’, ‘Pakhi’, ‘Icche Ghuri’ and others to some foreign companies. Against which the government does not pay any VAT or tax. Due to such illegal and corrupt activities of G-Series, the original creator and owner of the song Shironamhin is suffering financially and the government of Bangladesh is being deprived of revenue,” the band’s letter reads.
The band’s lead Ziaur Rahman Zia has requested the ACC to take proper legal action over the matter.
In this regard, he said: “According to the law, the copyright of any art belongs to its creator. As such, we got the copyright certificate for our songs in 2017. Our albums from G-Series were distributed as per the agreement.
According to the law, the copyright office cancelled the rights of G-Series and gave the rights to the songs to our band. Then they (G-Series) appealed. But the final verdict is also in our favour. Whenever we went to upload those albums (Jahaji, Icche Ghuri, Bondho Janala) on the YouTube channel, we were attacked by G-Series every time. They are giving us strikes, deck-down notices, and blocking us globally,” he added.
Zia said G-Series had appealed to the High Court in 2019. The court then asked for proper documentation as evidence from them, but it still could not provide it. “The purpose of this delay is to earn commercial profit.”
Shironamhin was formed in Dhaka on April 14, 1996.
Following as a rock group emerging from Dhaka’s underground music in the late 1990s, they were distinguished for their extended psychedelic and progressive compositions, multi-instrumental experimentation, and philosophical lyrics.
