Cover songs and copyright law: A Sri Lankan case study

Covering in music appears to be a significantly contested issue in the Sri Lankan music industry. Although the Sri Lankan commercial music industry in the Sri Lankan music industry in its initial stages was predominantly reliant on covering Indian melodies, the attitude towards cover versions in the contemporary music industry seems to be varied. Based on empirical findings, this presentation will explore the reasons behind the contestations relating to covering Sinhala songs in the local music industry and the role of the national copyright law. The proprietary approach, under wider intellectual property law and copyright law particularly, which makes it essential to decide ‘who gets what’ in a creative work, made the process of identifying what authors as creators of songs and singers as a group of performers get, a difficult task to accomplish. As an authorial right focused system, copyright law considers singers as subsidiary category of creators to authors, which seems to be a condition contested in Sinhala music industry. Thus this paper attempts to explore whether the concept of belonging would facilitate broader discussion on such contestations, beyond the limited space provided within the copyright regime, and in the process has the capacity to address these contestations surrounding cover songs.