INTRODUCTION-
Our homes are filled with creations of human creativity & Inventions. From a sofa to a carpet, technologies like phones, refrigerator, television, washing machine, to the music, books, painting and photographs, everything with which we live is a product of human creation and these creations of human mind is called intellectual property.
Copyright cover literary, dramatic, artistic and musical works, cinematographic films and sound recordings. Copyrights describes the rights given to creators for their literary, musical scores, painting and sculpture. Other works protected by copyright include films, choreography, architecture, advertisements, maps and technical drawing as well as computer programs & databases.
Copyright provides exclusive rights to creators to use or authorize others to use their works. The creator of a work can prohibits or authorize its reproduction in various forms, including printing, recording, broadcasting, public performance, translation or adaptation. Copyright encourages human creativity. It provides economic rights to creators which allow them or their heirs to benefit financially from their work usually for a period lasting 60 years after the creator’s death. The provides not only recognition for their work but also incentives to create more. As they create, we all benefit through a greater access to a wider variety of culture, knowledge and entertainment.
The primary legislation regulating intellectual property in India are as follows-
- Copyright Act 1957
- Copyright Rules, 2013
- International Copyright Order, 1999.
REGISTERATION OF COPYRIGHT-
The process of registration of Copyright is needed because it creates a proprietary right in the regarding field. The process of registration of Copyright consist following steps-
- Filing of the application for the copyright– The application must be submitted to the Copyright Office with the required fees, which can be paid either in the demand draft or through online payment options. Once this application is submitted, a unique journal number is generated and assigned to the Applicant. Using the journal number, the Applicant can track the status of the application. The Applicant is also obliged to submit to the authorities a work to be protected by copyright within 30 days of submitting the Application.
- Examination of the Copyright– After submitting the application and submitting the work, the application will be sent to the copyright examiner. After reviewing the Application, the examiner will either accept the application or raise an objection.
In case of zero discrepancies: This means that the application has met all the required criteria needed for copyright registration. In the event of an objection: In the event of an objection, legal reverts must be filed within the specified period.
In case of objections: Authorities communicate letters 2 to the interested parties and try to get them and claim back the objection. Following the required responses from the third party, the registrar conducts a hearing.
- Registration – The registration only can be done completely on the discretion of the registrar of the Copyright. Once there is no objection, the copyright registration is issued to the proprietor and then he can exercise all the rights lawfully as the owner of the copyright. Copyright is a form of intellectual property right. It is registered to protect original works such as music, art, literature, cinema/film, photography or computer program. There are detailed categories that creators can register for copyright. It will grant exclusive and full rights to the creator of the work.
RIGHTS CONFERRED BY THE COPYRIGHT–
Every copyright owner can use his protected work as he wishes. But he must have regard to the rights and interest of others and also exclude them from using it without his authorization. Therefore, the rights conferred to a copyright owner are often referred to as exclusive rights. The various rights conferred to a copyright owner are –
- Statutory rights– It states that the author or rights owner has the right to authorize or prevent certain acts in relation to a work. The rights owner of a work can prohibits or authorize is its reproduction in various forms, such as printed publications or sound recordings, the distribution of the copies for sale, it’s public performance, it’s broadcasting, it’s translation into other languages, it’s adaptation such as a novel into a screenplay.
- Economic rights – It allows the author to derive financial reward by exploiting his protected work. The author may exploit the work himself or license others to exploit any one or more of the rights for a consideration, which may be in the form of royalty or a lump-sum payment.
- Moral rights– It allows the author to take certain actions to preserve the personal link between himself and the work. Moral rights include the right to claim authorship of the work and the right to object to any distortion or modification of the work or other derogatory action in relation to work, which would be prejudicial to the author’s reputation. These rights are independent of the author’s economic rights and remain with the author even after he has transferred his economic rights.
- Negative rights– Copyright is a negative right in the sense that it stops others from exploiting the work of the author for their own benefit without the consent or license of the author.