It’s been a few years since home TV series have enjoyed an important place among people, and a large percentage of Iranians follow home TV series even abroad. In these series, however, strange games are played with music; Just like TV or some movies!
to report cinema cinemathese strange events are mainly related to the observance of copyright rights, sometimes they may play a musical work in their film without the permission of the owner and pay material and intellectual rights, or they may use any foreign song that they like.
Of course, such behavior with musical works in Iran is not considered a strange and new phenomenon, and sometimes a multi-season TV series like “Noon Kha” may face these issues several times during different years.
In fact, three years ago (April 1400), in the final episode of the third season of the television series “Noon Kha”, the old song “Lilim Lee” was broadcast with the voice of Hossein Safamanesh and the composition of Sadeq Azmand; A song that was actually a remake of a Turkish music with a Kurdish poem and at the same time even made Shahram Nazeri criticize.
Of course, later Sadegh Azmand – the composer of the “Noon Kha” series – explained to ISNA about the similarity of the music of the piece that was aired in the format of this series with its Turkish example, that “the music of the piece “Lilem Lil” has Kurdish origins. After listening to the work in the end credits of the series, some may be reminded of the piece sung by Ebrahim Tatlis (Turkish singer), but because he is Kurdish, this singer has translated some of the Kurdish folk melodies such as “Lilam Lil” into Turkish. »
As mentioned earlier, the music of “Noon Kh” series continued later, and this year Hossein Safamanesh, who had sung for this series three years ago, after the last episodes of “Noon.Kh” television series directed by Saeed Aghakhani, with The release of a video about the use of his works in the series “Noon. Kh” protested and said: “He will start legal and judicial follow-up on this matter soon.”
However, Mehdi Faraji, the producer of the “Noon.Kh” series, later said in response to this incident: “We used Mr. Safamanesh’s music in the Colbert section, of course I am not denying the issue of intellectual property, but I did not imagine that they would complain.” I thought he was going to call and say that you used this piece when you paid the Colberts. I am definitely in service to make up for the incident. In the previous two seasons, there was an attempt to negotiate with him.”
And as for “Noon Kha”, recently a popular series called “Afee Tehran” directed by Saman Moghadam was aired on the home show network, in which world-famous music works such as “Rolling Stones”, “Decor” and… It was used!
In fact, according to the previous works of Saman Moghadam, it seems that the director uses any song he likes and enjoys listening to in his films, depending on his taste in music. Maybe at first many people consider this incident as positive and ask what is wrong with it? By the way, this is how we get to know the famous and good works of the best bands in the world!
Of course, this hypothesis is not wrong at all, and in many foreign films and series, different musical works are used in every style and style, which mainly conveys a good mood to the audience, and in many cases, as soon as the work is played, the name of the song And the band or singer is subtitled.
By the way, in such cases, the audience gets acquainted with a new and high-quality piece of music, or if it is already familiar, it refreshes its memory. On the other hand, if the band and artist are less known, using their work in a movie or series is useful to introduce them, and if that piece of music from a band is very famous, then people like that again and again in music portals. They listen and take that piece of music to the top of the charts and somehow make money for that band.
An example of this happened two years ago for “Metallica”, in such a way that the song “Master of Puppets” from this popular group was played on the series “Stranger Things” and this song took its first place in the music chart. It reached the UK Top 40 at number 22.
But let’s not forget that this type of use of musical works in visual works outside of Iran must be accompanied by the payment of material and intellectual rights, even though the use of these works will be income-generating for singers and music groups! But if the same thing happens in Iran, in most cases, not only is there no news of the payment of the rights of the copyright holder, but even over the phone, permission has not been obtained to use foreign music works!
In this regard, we had a conversation with Bahram Dehqaniar (composer) to examine this story from his point of view.
At first, we asked this artist that the use of non-Persian music works in Iranian films has an effect on attracting the audience.
He replied: “It’s definitely effective, and directors and producers know that a familiar piece of music can be effective in attracting an audience.” This is not only limited to Iran, and films and series outside of Iran also use this type of music. Of course, outside of Iran, in exchange for the use of a piece of music that a team has produced with difficulty, the producer must pay a percentage based on the million income he earns to the owners of the music whose work he used in his film. .
Dehqaniar says about the observance of copyright rights in Iran: Copyright rights are very strict in many countries of the world, but in Iran we did not have a special copyright law even before the revolution, and this type of abuse was taking place. Of course, we have had rare cases in Iran where the producer or director of a film contacted the creator of the music or the singer and obtained permission from him to use his music or sometimes paid a fee. But in any case, this should be legalized and anyone should not be allowed to use music works however they want.
He continues: Sometimes a piece of music does not belong to anyone, for example, a piece of folk music that neither the producer nor the songwriter is known, in this case it is not appropriate to use that piece anywhere in the world. Sometimes a musical work is considered as a public domain work, and the duty of this type of work is also clear, but when the source of the work is known, the least that the film and series producers can do is to communicate with the producer. and contact the owner of the work, get permission to use their work and pay an agreed amount so that they can use that music work.
This music artist said about the reason for using foreign music works in Iranian films and series: With the knowledge I have of our own directors; Because they have already heard a song and connected with it, they like to share that feeling with their viewers. If the right thing is to introduce the desired song to the composer or the music team they have and work with and ask them to create a work of the same genre for their film; Because in any case, it is not possible to pay foreign artists and singers in Iran, so it is better to use original music works.
In the following, we asked this artist if it is not better to use the musical works of independent Iranian groups that are compatible with the atmosphere of the film, if they are paid for?
He said: I agree with this and I fully believe that independent and creative music groups should be supported. The issue is, does that producer or director have the knowledge to know that such people are also active and that their works can be used instead of foreign songs?
This composer continued: The producer and director should have a knowledgeable music consultant who will introduce them to suitable Iranian options so that they can choose the song they want and use it in their film by paying the music artists’ fees. Of course, the music consultant can be a musician himself, but he is not responsible for the composition during the film, anyway, the music consultant is a specialty and discipline in today’s music.
He clarified: the violation of the rights of the owners of the work is due to the absence of a music consultant in Iran’s theatrical productions. There should be a person as a music consultant to introduce to them the type of music needed by the director and producer with his knowledge of all underground bands or licensed music bands in Iran.
In the end, we asked him what kind of royalties or copyrights the producers are avoiding?
Dehqaniar said: I don’t know exactly; Because according to international copyright laws, according to different conditions such as “the quality of the work, its fame, the song, its age, the amount of its sales in its period and subsequent periods, and economic inflation at any time”, different amounts are given to the creator of the work, the owner of the work and Other production factors are assigned and everything is completely relative.
Source: ISNA