What is Patent

COPYRIGHT

Copyright is a bundle of exclusive rights granted by statute to the author of the works to exploit or authorise the exploitation of the copyright work, based on international norms like Berne Convention, Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Agreement and WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT). The copyright works in which rights subsist are ‘original’ literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, and cinematograph films and sound recording. This page gives information as to Indian Law on Copyright and has full texts of Legislations, Cases and International Conventions.
What is Copyright?

Copyright is one of the chief forms of intellectual property that is afforded protection by the law, the other three being patents, trademarks, and industrial designs. In its most simplistic formulation, copyright implies protection against copying of one’s work by another. Its chief object is to encourage people to create original works in different fields like literature, art and music by rewarding them with the exclusive right for a limited period of exploit the work for monetary gain. Theoretically, it acts as an incentive for people to come out with newer and newer copyrightable works, which add to the knowledge stock of mankind.

Copyright is a kind of intellectual property the importance of which has been increasing tremendously due to the enormous changes in communication, entertainment and computer industries. The law in this area of intellectual property deals with protection of rights on certain type of works like literary, dramatics, musical, artistic, cinematograph film and sound recording, which result from the intellectual labour of human beings. Copyright presents people with an opportunity to exploit economically their creations either exploiting it themselves on by licensing their exclusive rights to publishers, producers etc., for consideration.
Justification:

The whole basis of copyright lies in the fact that none should be allowed to appropriate to himself the fruits of labour of another. In this way, almost all theorists justify the existence of copyright on the ‘Labour Theory of Property’ propounded by Locke, according to which a person can own any ‘property’ if he has added value to it by his own labour. The things for which copyright subsists emerge from ideas, concepts, thoughts etc. that are common to all, but these things have been put in a fixed form using one’s mental faculty. The only difference is that while Locke justified property on the basis of physical labour, here its mental labour that is at work.

History:

The law relating to copyrights has had a very chequered history. The concept of copyright arose as an exclusive right of the author to copy the literature produced by him. Actually, if originated not as a shield to protect the author’s right but as a sword to prevent unauthorized publication of books in the medieval period in England against the Church and the King of literature against them came to be published which necessitated control. Simultaneously, the birth of the printing press led to a manifold increase in the capacity to copy and made author’s also conscious of their rights and the profits that could be made.

In 1662, Licensing Act of Charles II recognised the rights of the authors for the first time by controlling printing in a major way. Then in 1710, the Act of Anne (8 Anne c.19) was the first legislation on copyright, which expressly declared the author’s exclusive right of copying and publishing for a limited period in the case of books and imposed criminal penalties for violations. The scope of copyright continued to be expanded with the development is society and things like sculpture, art, engravings etc. were also included within its ambit by various enactments.

In 1911, the Imperial Copyright Act was passed which consolidated the law relating to copyright, which brought under that legislation different copyrightable subject matters that were governed by different legislation. The Act declared copyright to be a statutory right, settling the confusion hitherto existed as to whether copyright is common law right or statutory right. Subject matters of copyright continued to expand. Newer subject matters like cinematograph films started to be protected. Copyright Act of 1956 in England substituted the 1911 Act.

In India also, simultaneous developments took place with the Indian Copyright Act of 1847 being based on the 1842 Act in England. The Indian Copyright Act, 1914, was an extension of the Copyright Act, 1911, to India with necessary modifications and then in 1957, a new Copyright Act was passed which was modelled along the English Copyright Act of 1956.

The main international treaties governing the law of Copyright ands Neighbouring rights are TRIPs Agreement; Berne Convention, 1886; Rome convention, 1961; Universal Copyright Convention, 1952;WIPO Copyright Treaty, 1996; and WIPO Performance and Phonograms Treaty, 1996

INDIAN LAW ON COPYRIGHT

In India, the 1^st legislation on Copyright was the Indian Copyright Act, 1847. This Act continued to be in force till it was replaced by Indian Copyright Right Act, 1914. The Copyright Act, 1957, as amended in the years 1984,1994 and 1999, to accommodate the obligations under international treaties, governs the present law relating to copyright.

Copyrights subsist in:

a) Original literary, musical, dramatic and artistic works.

b) Cinematograph films

c) Sound recordings

Computer programme is considered to be literary work and protected as such. Copyright also subsists in translations, abridgements or compilations of other works, provided that the consent of the original Copyright holder had been obtained. The author will then have separate copyright in respect of the translated or abridge work. All these are considered to be literary work.

General rule of copyright is that author is the first owner of the copyright. However, this rule is subject to exceptions in the case of employments work, and commissioned work and government work. Author is the person who put intellectual labour to create the copyright work. But in the case of sound recording and cinematograph film author is the producer is author.

Copyright Act makes it very clear that copyright is only a statutory right and common law copyright is not recognised. It is a very exhaustive piece of legislation that seeks to encompass the entire spectrum of rights and liberation even minutely related to copyright.

Section 14 of the Act lists various rights of a copyright owner of literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, cinematograph film, sound recording and computer programme.

Along with the copyright for the author, various neighbouring rights to protect the interests of performances, broadcasters etc. have also developed to safeguard their interests. The 1994 Amendment Act has incorporated these into the Copyright Law in India. “Performers rights” was introduced as Section 38 by the 1994 amendment to the Copyright Act. Under Section 37 right known as “Broadcasting Reproducing Right” is given to every broadcasting organization in respect of its broadcasts for a period of 25 years. Performer’s rights, protection is given to various types of performers like actors, dances, musicians, jugglers, acrobats etc. These rights are also available for a period of 25 years and guarantee rights such as reproduction of sound or visual recording of the performances and its broadcast or other communication to the public etc.

Term of Protection

The term for which copyright subsists varies according to the nature of the work and whether the author is a natural person or a legal person. Generally speaking, copyright subsists for a term of the lifetime of the authors plus 60 years in case of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work. In the case of joint authorship, the term is computed from the death of the last living author. If a work is published posthumously it is a flat term of sixty years from the date of the publication, but if the name of the author is disclosed before the expiry of such period, it will be for sixty years after the death of the author. In the case of cinematograph films and sound recording copyright subsists for a period of 60 years from publication. Where the owner of the copyright is the Government on other organization, copyright is for 60 years from publication. Publication, in this connection would mean making the particular work available to the public by issue of copies or by communicating the work to the public.