[Reader-list] copyrighting yoga?

[Avishek Ganguly]

yoga in/as public domain?
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Newsday May 25, 2003
 http://www.newsday.com/business/local/newyork/ny-
yoga3299012may25.story
            Litigious Celeb Guru Sues to Keep Yoga 'Hot'
            Small yoga studio owners wary of Bikram's threats
            By Carrie Levine
 
Hot yoga is becoming too hot to handle.
People take classes to relax, but offering it has become more 
stressful for small yoga studios. Celebrity yoga guru Bikram 
Choudhury has copyrighted the 26 poses taught in his studios and 
has filed a lawsuit against one California yoga studio he claims is 
infringing on his copyright.
Choudhury, a native of India, has built his hot yoga class, taught at 
temperatures above 100 degrees, into a multimillion-dollar American 
brand. He said that the lawsuit, which seeks monetary damages of 
$150,000 per occurrence - as well as the cease-and-desist letters 
sent to other studios - seeks to protect the quality of classes offered 
using his name, which for many has become synonymous with hot 
yoga. He also points out that he has made no effort to copyright 
individual poses, only the sequence he designed.
"I'm not very happy that I have to do this kind of thing, like charging 
money to teach yoga," he said. "I'm not very happy that I am doing 
franchising, because yoga is not Big Mac."
Donna Rubin, co-owner of four Manhattan Bikram studios and one in 
Bridgehampton, said many area hot yoga classes are taught by 
Bikram's teacher-training graduates, who must agree to teach only at 
Bikram studios. "The bottom line is, it's really nothing to do with 
financial reasons so much as some kind of quality control."
Others say Choudhury is using the threat of litigation - and a possible 
verdict - to cow competitors from teaching yoga poses that have been 
in the public domain for thousands of years.
The threat of lawsuits has owners of small studios wary to offer 
Bikram-style yoga.
Jonathan Fields, a former lawyer who now owns Manhattan's Sonic 
Yoga, said that most small yoga studios couldn't afford to fight these 
lawsuits. "The concern for me is on the potential stifling impact. It's 
kind of a First Amendment thing."
Traditional yogis are objecting to Choudhury's approach as loudly as 
his competitors. Sal Familia is the director of the Yoga Anand Ashram 
in Amityville and goes by the name of Satyam, which means 
truthfulness in Sanskrit. The center teaches what he calls classical 
yoga.
Choudhury's copyright violates the principle of yoga known in English 
as nonpossessiveness, Satyam said. "Anyone who could do 
something like that should be ashamed of himself.... To turn it into a 
commodity and a thing is to deny the very foundation of what yoga is 
about."
The Yoga Research and Education Center in Santa Rosa, Calif., 
offers no breakdowns on how many Americans do hot yoga, but it's 
on the schedule everywhere from yoga studios to gym chains. During 
90-minute classes, sweat pours off students as they perform poses, 
or asanas, on mats. The heat is supposed to eliminate toxins. Hot 
yoga addicts swear the heat also increases flexibility.
The financial stakes are high. The copyright puts the flamboyant 
Choudhury, whom Yoga Journal once described as "the bad boy of 
yoga," in a position to consolidate his hold on the hot yoga market, a 
growing share of the $27 billion a year Americans spend on yoga. 
Choudhury would not give the worth of his privately held company - 
Bikram's Yoga College of India, headquartered in Los Angeles - but a 
spokesman confirmed that a $7-million estimate is accurate.
Bikram affiliates soon will have to convert to official franchises and 
pay a fee that may range from $5,000 to $10,000 annually. Owners 
must agree to teach only Bikram yoga and to submit their studio 
designs to Bikram for approval. Teachers also must follow a script 
while teaching the class.
The guru describes his 26-pose sequence, taught with two breathing 
exercises, as "like a melody, like a tune. It works from bone to the 
skin, from hair to the toes. Each cell, every molecule, you work out 
100 percent. That was my invention. I am the first man in the world to 
be teaching yoga like a drill."
Bikram's rules standardize the yoga class so that a customer can 
drop in at any Bikram affiliate and find the same product - in effect, 
the first national yoga chain. More than 700 Bikram-affiliated studios 
operate around the country - including in Dix Hills, Bridgehampton 
and Locust Valley, along with two in Brooklyn and seven in 
Manhattan.
Since yoga is becoming more popular, some yoga studio owners are 
expanding without Bikram's blessing.
Tom Salshutz, one of the owners of New York Yoga on the Upper 
East Side, said he and his partner are opening a new studio on 
Lexington Avenue called New York Yoga Hot next month. The studio 
will offer "Bikram-style" hot yoga and othermethods - despite a buzz 
about possible lawsuits.
"We have not researched this, and we don't know what the legality 
is," he said. "But it's a shame that this guy doesn't want to allow the 
benefits of his practice to be offered to as many people as possible, 
because that is the essence of yoga."
So far, Bikram has sued only one studio, Yoga Studio in Costa Mesa, 
Calif. It is run by Kim Morrison, who took Choudhury's teacher-
certification classes, and her husband, Mark. The couple is fighting 
the suit.
Bikram said he hopes the suit will deter other studios from teaching 
his sequence so he doesn't have to file another.
If he has his way, yogis like Stephanie Cohen of Manhattan will have 
to take their Bikram classes at Bikram studios. Cohen, 35, teaches 
yoga, although not Bikram, and takes daily classes all over the city. 
Bikram's strict rules may turn off his client base, she predicted.
"New Yorkers want ashtanga [a different yoga style] one day and, 
next week, they want power, and then they want slow-flow classes," 
she said. "I don't think they're ready to be so committed."



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