The Copyright Act: Safeguarding Creativity and Cultural Expression

Copyright law is a key part of intellectual property rights. Its purpose is to protect the creators of original works, ensuring they get credit and can earn money from their creations. At the same time, it aims to promote the public’s access to new ideas and culture. In India, this is all governed by the Copyright Act, 1957. This law has been updated several times, with the most significant changes coming in 2012. These updates were necessary to deal with new challenges brought by the digital age, such as the rise of the internet, streaming services, and global trade.

Historical Context:

The foundation of Indian copyright law comes from British colonial rules, specifically the Copyright Act of 1914. After India gained independence, it created its own law, the Copyright Act of 1957, to modernize the system. Since then, the Act has been amended six times. The 2012 Amendment was a major overhaul.

It introduced important new rules, including:

1. Mandatory royalties for authors and music composers.
2. New rights for performers, such as singers and actors.
3. Rules on technological protection measures, like DRM.
4. Provisions to make works more accessible for people with disabilities.

These changes helped align Indian law with major international treaties, such as the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the TRIPS Agreement, showing India’s commitment to global intellectual property standards.

What Kinds of Works Are Protected by Copyright?

Section 13 of the Indian Copyright Act lists the types of works that can receive copyright protection. These include:

1. Literary works: This covers a wide range of written material, such as books, articles, poems, and even computer programs.
2. Dramatic works: This includes plays, screenplays, scripts, and choreographed dances.
3. Musical works: This refers to the music itself, like a musical score or a composition, but not the lyrics (which are literary works).
4. Artistic works: This category covers paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, and architectural designs.
5. Cinematograph films: This includes all types of films and movies.
6. Sound recordings: This refers to the audio recording of music, speech, or any other sound.

According to international agreements like the Berne Convention, copyright protection is automatic as soon as the work is created. You don’t need to register your work to get copyright. However, registering it can be very helpful because the registration certificate serves as strong initial proof of ownership if there’s a legal dispute

What Rights Does a Copyright Owner Have?

Section 14 of the Act gives the copyright owner a set of exclusive rights to control their work. These rights fall into two main categories:

1. Economic Rights: These are rights that allow the creator to make money from their work. They include the right to:
2. Reproduce (make copies of) the work. He

1. Distribute it to the public.
2. Perform or communicate it to the public (like broadcasting a song on the radio).
3. Adapt it (e.g., turning a book into a film).
4. Translate it into another language.
5. Moral Rights (Section 57): These are personal rights that protect the creator’s reputation and relationship with their work. They are separate from economic rights and generally cannot be sold. The two key moral rights are:
6. Right of Attribution: The right to be named as the creator of the work.
7. Right of Integrity: The right to prevent the work from being changed, distorted, or mutilated in a way that would harm the creator’s reputation.

Ownership and Duration:

In India, the person who creates a work is generally the first owner of the copyright. This is established under Section 17 of the Copyright Act.

However, there are a few exceptions to this rule:

1. Works made in employment: If a work is created by an employee during their job, the employer is considered the first owner of the copyright, not the employee.
2. Commissioned works: In some cases, if a person commissions a work, the person who commissioned it may become the owner.

The duration of copyright protection depends on the type of work:

1. For literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, the copyright lasts for the lifetime of the author plus an additional 60 years after their death.
2. For films, sound recordings, and government works, the copyright lasts for 60 years from the date the work was first published.

Transferring and Licensing Rights: 

The Copyright Act also provides rules for how a copyright owner can transfer or share their rights.

1. Assignment (Sections 18-19): A copyright owner can completely assign (transfer) their rights to another person. This means the new owner now has full control over the copyright. This transfer must be in writing. The 2012 amendment added an important safeguard: it prevents creators from signing away their rights for future technologies they can’t even imagine yet.
2. Licensing (Section 30): Instead of selling the rights completely, an owner can license them. This is like giving someone permission to use the work for a specific purpose, time, and fee, while the owner still keeps the copyright. A license can be exclusive (only one person can use it) or non-exclusive (multiple people can be licensed).

Exceptions and Fair Dealing:

Copyright law isn’t an absolute rule. Section 52 of the Indian Copyright Act provides a set of exceptions, often called “fair dealing,” which allow people to use copyrighted material without permission from the owner. The goal is to balance the rights of creators with the public’s right to access information.

What is “Fair Dealing”?

Fair dealing allows limited, non-commercial use of copyrighted material for specific purposes. These exceptions include:

1. Private or Personal Use: You can use copyrighted work for your own personal study and research.
2. Criticism or Review: You can quote or use parts of a work for the purpose of critically reviewing it.
3. News Reporting: You can use copyrighted material when reporting on current events.
4. Educational Use: Using copyrighted works for teaching, research, or in classrooms is generally permitted.
5. Judicial Proceedings: You can use copyrighted material in legal cases.
6. Accessible Formats for the Disabled: An important exception added in 2012, this allows for the creation of accessible formats (like Braille or audiobooks) for people with disabilities.

The University of Oxford v Rameshwari Photocopy Services case is a landmark example. The court ruled that making photocopied course packs for students constituted fair dealing under the educational use exception. This decision highlighted how copyright exceptions promote education and access to knowledge.

Judicial Interpretations:

Indian courts have played a crucial role in defining and clarifying copyright law through a series of key judgments:

1. G. Anand v Deluxe Films (1978): This case established the idea-expression dichotomy. The court ruled that copyright protects the unique way an idea is expressed, not the idea itself. For example, the idea of a romantic story is not protected, but the specific script and dialogue of a film based on that idea are.
2. Eastern Book Co. v D.B. Modak (2008): This judgment rejected the “sweat of the brow” doctrine, which suggested that any work resulting from significant effort was copyrightable. Instead, the court introduced the “modicum of creativity” test, stating that a work must have at least a small amount of creative originality to be eligible for copyright protection.
3. Amar Nath Sehgal v Union of India (2005): In this case, the court upheld the artist’s “right of integrity” under Section 57. The judgment protected the artist’s moral right to prevent any mutilation or destruction of their work that could harm their reputation. The court ruled in favour of a sculptor whose mural was removed and destroyed by the government, emphasizing that an artist’s moral rights continue even after the work is sold.
4. Super Cassettes Industries v Music Broadcast (2012): This case clarified the “communication to the public” The court ruled that radio stations and other broadcasters needed separate licenses to broadcast sound recordings. This affirmed that the original creators have a distinct right to authorize how their work is publicly broadcast.
5. Indian Performing Rights Society v Eastern India Motion Pictures (1977): This case was a landmark in the music industry. Initially, the Supreme Court held that film producers became the owners of the copyright in any musical works used in their films. However, this ruling was later effectively reversed by the Copyright (Amendment) Act of 2012, which clarified that authors, composers, and lyricists retain their right to receive royalties for the continued use of their work, even when it is incorporated into a film.

Remedies for Infringement:

The Copyright Act of 1957 provides for civil, criminal, and administrative remedies to address copyright infringement.

1. Civil Remedies:

Under Section 55, the Act allows for a range of civil remedies, including:

1. Injunctions to stop the infringing activity.
2. Damages to compensate the copyright holder for losses.
3. Accounts of profits to recover any profits made from the infringement.
4. Delivery of infringing copies to the copyright owner.

Criminal Remedies:

Sections 63 to 70 of the Act outline criminal penalties for infringement, which may include:

1. Imprisonment ranging from six months to three years.
2. Fines between ₹50,000 and ₹2,00,000.

It’s important to note that the court can, for special and adequate reasons (e.g., if the infringement was not for commercial gain), impose a reduced sentence of less than six months of imprisonment or a fine of less than ₹50,000.

Technological Protection Measures:

Sections 65A and 65B specifically address the circumvention of Digital Rights Management (DRM) and the removal of electronic rights management information. These provisions penalize such acts.

Additionally, customs authorities are empowered to prevent the import and export of goods that infringe on copyright.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a term for the use of technology to control access to and manage the use of copyrighted digital content. It’s a set of technical measures designed to protect the rights of content creators and publishers by preventing unauthorized distribution, copying, and modification of their digital works.

The section of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957, that specifically deals with the power of customs authorities to prevent the import of infringing goods is Section 53. This section empowers the owner of a copyright to give written notice to the Commissioner of Customs, requesting that infringing copies of their work be treated as “prohibited goods” and stopped from entering the country.

International Framework:

India is a party to key conventions:

1. Berne Convention (1886);
2. Universal Copyright Convention (1952)
3. TRIPS Agreement (1995);
4. WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT).

These ensure reciprocal recognition of works and minimum standards of protection. Indian courts often interpret domestic provisions in harmony with international obligations.

Contemporary Challenges:

Even though new and better rules have been made, some tough issues are still here:

1. Stealing digital content online: It’s hard to stop people from illegally copying and sharing movies, music, and other digital items on streaming sites and other online platforms.
2. Content made by AI: When computers create art or writing, it’s not clear who truly owns it or if it’s really an original new work.
3. NFTs and art on the blockchain: The laws aren’t clear about who owns these unique digital art pieces or who can make copies of them on these new, shared online systems.
4. Finding the right balance: If we are too strict about protecting content, we might accidentally stop people from learning new things and coming up with new ideas.

Conclusion:

India’s copyright law, which started in 1957, has grown into a strong set of rules. It carefully balances the rights of people who create things with the interests of the public. Decisions made by judges and changes made in 2012 have brought this law up to date, making it fit with international agreements. However, the digital world brings entirely new problems. These include questions like who owns creations made by Artificial Intelligence (AI), and how to deal with unique digital items (NFTs). Because of this, the law constantly needs to be updated. To remain useful and current, India’s copyright law must keep changing ahead of new issues. It needs to make sure creators are strongly protected, but also that the public gets fair access to creative works.

References:

1. Copyright Act, 1957 (India).
2. The Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2012 (India).
3. Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886).
4. TRIPS Agreement, Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Annex 1C (1995).
5. WIPO Copyright Treaty (1996).
6. G. Anand v Deluxe Films (1978) 4 SCC 118.
7. Eastern Book Co v D.B. Modak (2008) 1 SCC 1.
8. Amar Nath Sehgal v Union of India 2005 (30) PTC 253 (Del).
9. Super Cassettes Industries Ltd v Music Broadcast Pvt Ltd (2012) 5 SCC 488.
10. Indian Performing Rights Society Ltd v Eastern India Motion Pictures Association (1977) 2 SCC 820.
11. The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford v Rameshwari Photocopy Services (2016) 160 (2009) DLT 769 (Del HC).