Copyright breach: James says no decision yet on when case will be filed

Popular singer Mahfuz Anam James is yet to decide on the when to file the case against Banglalink on charges of breaching copyright laws, said his manager Rubaiyat Tagore.

Asked about the copyright lawsuit, Banglalink's Head of Corporate Communications and Sustainability Ankit Sureka said, "Being a compliant and law-abiding company, we fully respect the laws of the country, including the copyright laws. We have not received any official communication on this matter yet. Therefore, we cannot comment on the matter without having the full details."

In an interview with The Business Standard on Monday, Rubaiyat Tagore said, "We went to get legal advice from our lawyer and preparations are now underway to sue Banglalink over the copyright breach."

"We are yet to decide on the tentative date to move forward with the legal proceedings and we will make it official once we come to a decision," Rubaiyat added.

When asked about the lawsuit, James' lawyer Tapas Kumar Pal concurred with the information provided by Rubaiyat and said, "I do not want to talk about the details of the lawsuit at this moment. I am readying the essentials needed to file the case at this moment and the rest will be informed later."

Regarding the court's decision to refuse to take the case on Sunday, Tapas said that Banglalink infringed the copyright and natural rights of James by commercially exploiting his works as mobile content and other forms and circulating those among its subscribers for commercial gain.

Tapas said, "Banglalink was asked multiple times to stop this, to which they kept on saying that they would stop using the songs but never did. Under these circumstances, James decided to sue Banglalink under copyright law. But the court returned the case and advised him to seek legal support from Gulshan police station."