Amritsar, August 25, 2023: As per media reports the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has issued a stern note to the Sri Dardar Sahib manager instructing him to ensure that the raagis should refrain from sharing the link of Gurbani telecast on their private page or channel as it was tantamount to infringement of the copyright.
The ‘raagis’ (who play hymns) at the Golden Temple landed in the soup after they were found breaching the copyright for live Gurbani telecast from the Sri Dardar Sahib.
The Information Technology (IT) wing of the SGPC had detected that several raagis who perform Gurbani kirtan at Sri Dardar Sahib were sharing the clip on their private social media platforms in an unauthorised manner.
In the notice under the signature of the SGPC secretary, the raagis were sternly warned that if they kept indulging in such practice, they would be liable to face action.
An official confirmed that some raagis were found to be on the wrong side of judgement as they used to pick the live link of Gurbani kirtan unofficially during their duty hours and share them on their private channels.
On July 24, the SGPC had launched its worldwide web channel officially on the YouTube platform known as ‘SGPC Sri Amritsar’ to telecast Gurbani kirtan rendered inside the sanctum sanctorum of Sri Dardar Sahib globally. At present, there are 2.46 lakh subscribers of the YouTube channel and 4.34 lakh on the official Facebook page of the Sikh body.
The feed link of Gurbani has been the property of the SGPC. It could be relayed only through the designated YouTube channel.
Any channel, web or media platform, other than those authorised by the SGPC, would have absolutely no right to re-direct, re-stream, download or upload the Gurbani broadcast from the Sri Dardar Sahib.
SGPC teams kept a hawk’s eye on the copyright violators regularly. Till date, the SGPC has submitted 699 complaints pertaining to copyright breach with the YouTube authorities by some private channels who attempted to steal the Gurbani contents, an official said
