Guitarist Faraz Anwar takes legal action against international airline

Musician says Mizraab album 'Maazi Haal Mustaqbil' is illegally available on Emirates' in-flight entertainment portal

KARACHI: Guitar virtuoso Faraz Anwar, on Wednesday sent a legal notice to UAE's popular carrier, Emirates for copyright infringement.

The musician took to Instagram and shared that the airline has 'disrespected his legal rights and used his album and songs on their in-flight entertainment system, ICE."

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3-HiDjH5F-/

"I am writing this post after many months of attempting to contact Emirates Airline through proper legal channels," Anwar shared on Instagram with a copy of the legal notice.

"They have disrespected my legal rights and have used my album and songs on their in-flight entertainment system for years without paying me a single cent or even taking permission from me," he added.

" It is unbelievable that an international company which is so highly reputed would grossly ignore an Artist's Intellectual Property Rights. This is one of the legal notices that I had sent them earlier," Anwar went on.

Mizraab frontman was of the opinion that any enterprise or organisation should have the decency and professionalism to respect an individual's intellectual property.

"This is a battle we have been fighting for quite some time and it doesn't seem to end," Anwar told The Express Tribune.

Copyrights, in general, is a touchy issue in Pakistan that no one takes seriously, including the local TV and radio channels. But the artist had better expectations from an enterprise, expecting that they would have a Standard Operating Procedure in place for acquiring rights to intellectual property.

"I have been chasing them for almost two years now but they haven't removed it from the portal yet. I once got a response that they would look into the matter but my music continues to be available, shamelessly."

Maazi Haal Mustaqbil was released by the well known Sadaf Records but Anwar was quite to clarify that the company only had the CD distribution rights. Which is why a third party involvement or settlement was out of the question.

"I personally own all of Mizraab's and my solo music," Anwar asserted, "Even Coke Studio, Nescafe basement and all other ventures backed by corporate entities took my permission and acquired the performance rights to my music through the proper channel," said Anwar.

The musician of Kitni Sadiyan fame remains adamant about highlighting the issue till it's resolved completely. "It's not about one song, it's the attitude and how lightly we treat intellectual property rights."



Have something to add to the story? Share it in the comments below