COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT: LAWS IN INDIA

COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT: LAWS IN INDIA

ABSTRACT

“Copyright” is a legal right, falling under the intellectual property rights, which is given to anyone for his or her work and includes invention of all sorts like works of literary nature, symbols or phrases, and self-made designs for a fixed period of time.

In other words, it implies that the right to copy is only available if any person takes permission of the owner of such copyright and it is the originality of the work which is a key feature in assigning a copyright to any work.

Thus, copyright is seen to exist only on expression and not on ideas and Section 13 of the Copyright Act, 1957, enshrines the works where copyright exists such as Literary works, Drama and related works, Musical works, Artistic works, Cinematographic Films and also Sound recordings.

Copyright infringement occurs when such copyrighted work is used without the prior permission of the owner and involves both intentional and unintentional uses of such work without giving any sort of credit to its owner. This paper is an emphasis on copyright infringements and its classifications like primary and secondary infringements, enlightening the issues which have imposed various problems to the copyright owners.

This paper uses doctrinal form of research on the various primary and secondary sources of data available on internet and focuses on the meaning of Copyright, copyright infringement, reasons for occurrence of such copyright infringements, actions against copyright infringements and the various laws regarding copyright infringements in India. It also tries to explain some basic ways of tackling copyright infringement so as to avoid the penalties in some cases. It also puts emphasis on the online infringements of cinematographic films and other such works which is an on-going phenomenon in many such online sites.

KEYWORDS: Intellectual property rights, Copyright, Legal Right, Copyright Infringement, Copyright Act 1957                      

INTRODUCTION

“Copyright infringement”, as the terms suggests, is making inappropriate use of copyrighted work without the prior permission of its owner and occurs when a person either with the intention or without the intention makes copies of any work or uses the work of someone else without his or her consent or without giving that person any credit which he/she rightfully deserves. Such type of infringement is classified into two types, known as the primary and secondary infringement. Where the first type of infringement involves the actual copying of someone else’s work with or without the prior knowledge of it, while, second type of such an infringement involves unauthorised use like selling copies of work of other individuals with the knowledge of such type of infringement.

Copyright infringements in India occur due to various reasons like:

1. Sale of any work already published without the consent or authority of the owner of such work
2. Performance of copyrighted work in a place of public nature
3. Infringing copies for personal gains
4. Trade of copies of such copyrighted work
5. Importing of infringed copies to India from other countries

However, there are other acts not amounting to copyright infringements and for which certain conditions are to be fulfilled. These includes using any such copyrighted work for various other purposes like in schools and also in research where the necessity to obtain any permission does not come into picture. Some such acts are mentioned below:

1. One of the most important defences against copyright infringements is the making of just use as defined in Section 53 of the Copyright Act
2. Connected judicial proceeding
3. Performing in front of a non-paying audience by an amateur club or society
4. Recordings of any nature

The importance of copyright flows from the fact that the owner of a copyright is entitled to a number of rights like producing, publishing, performing, translating, broadcasting, making copies of or making a movie out of the work and other such rights, which helps protect the creativity of such work by its respective authors.

CONCEPTUALIZATION

The paper brings to our focus the laws relating to copyright infringement in India and actions that shall be taken against such infringements.  Section 63 of the Act states that where any person knowingly infringes or abets infringement of any work or right covered under the act, such person may face punishment of imprisonment of a minimum term of six months and a maximum term to three years and a fine of between rupees fifty thousand and two hundred thousand. while other penalties include offences such as using infringed copied of a computer program or any other work or making false entries in the Register of Copyrights.

Section 65A and 65B also provide for penalties which include facing prison life of up to two years and payment of definite amount of fine for unauthorised alteration of ‘rights management information’.

The conditions for taking any action against such infringements are as follows:

1. The ownership proof of any copyrighted work
2. Huge similarity between the infringed and original copy of work
3. And improper appropriation amounting from copying of such work.

The civil actions that can be taken are mentioned in Section 55 of the act and the following reliefs are available against such infringements:

1. An important feature that prohibits from making any form of infringement is the relief of Interlocutory Injunction.
2. Financial Relief is another relief provided under Section 55 and 58 of the act where damages are calculated based on the value of the infringed article.
3. Another order that restraints the infringer from dealing in infringed goods is the Anton Pillar Order, this also allows to look into the premises of the person infringing or the infringer and take such infringed items or works into custody
4. Information of important nature may be discovered from any third person as stated in the Norwich Pharmacal Order.
5. The last one is the Mareva Injunction which is passed by a court to take custody o the infringed goods and thus preventing any disposal

LITERATURE REVIEW

Copyright infringement is always mentioned with a negativity as it is something that the government prohibits its citizens from doing and is defined as something which is used to copy the work of someone else and produce such work for personal gains without the prior permission of the copyright holder and includes rights given to the copyright holder like the exclusive use of a work for a particular period of time. Cinematographic films and songs are two of the most well-known forms of entertainment that suffer from most copyright infringements.

Individuals and companies who develop new works register for copyright protection to ensure that they can profit from their efforts. This paper requires understanding of the copyright infringements through various companies and individuals who develop new work every day and register for copyright protection in order to make sure they profit from their efforts or work that they produce. Also other parties may purchase such work or get license from the owner to use the same. However apart from these, there are several reasons which lead to copyright infringements and this paper particularly focuses on those unauthorised uses.

In United States the office that accepts new applications for copyrights is the Copyright Office which grants copyrights to creators of various works like music, visual arts and literary works. And in 2018 itself there were more than 500,000 applications for such copyright protection.

Over the years there have been various issues in copyright infringements and the advancements in technology have led to a number of problems which include the following:

1. International issues: laws relating to copyright infringements usually vary from country to country and it is thus seen difficult to prove ownership of such copyrights in the international arena. And the copyright claims from international companies are seen as a threat to the national productivity.
2. Technology: the advancements in technology have made it easier to copy any work or product and most companies or individuals have been seen to generate revenue from duplicating the work of other companies or individuals.
3. Photography: photographers, graphic artists and even illustrators have raised their concern regarding the infringements resulting from digital imagery, which has made it much easier to copy an image.
4. The Internet: internet has made it easier to access copyrighted materials all around the world and the ever increasing importance of internet has imposed new challenges or obstacles upon the copyright holders. Also the creation of new technologies has outrun the various authorities regulating such infringements.
5. Moral rights: Copyright infringements have resulted not only in monetary or economic loss but the major losses have been of noneconomic rights such as moral rights which include the integrity and reputation of a person.

Effects of copyright infringements

Criminal action against such infringements can be taken under the Copyright Act 1957, where a person found guilty of infringement would be liable for punishment of imprisonment which may extent for not less than six months to three years or fine of at least rupees fifty thousand to rupees two lakhs. Search of infringed goods may also take place if a court of competent jurisdiction orders so and such articles shall be seized for delivering it to the actual owner.

Direct Infringement: This is a type of infringement in which the intention of guilt is not essential for proving such infringement.

Contributory infringement: This is a type of infringement in which the infringer is pre supposed to have the knowledge of such infringement and to claim damages from the infringer the plaintiff has to either prove that the defendant knew or should have known of the infringing activity or that the defendant induced or caused or materially contributed to other persons for committing this crime of copyright infringement.

In India there have been no such cases dealing with Contributory infringement so far but the pace at which technological advancements are taking place it is likely to face similar cases in the future.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The primary objectives of the study include understanding of the concepts like Copyright and copyright infringement including the works where copyright exists such as literary works, Musical works, Artistic works, Cinematographic Films and also Sound recordings.

This paper is aimed at providing various laws relating to copyright infringements in India and such punishments forming part of it. Also it brings to our purview, issues of online infringements which has created numerous problems and the current position of such laws in India.

Lastly it focuses on the importance of various copyright protection laws, the future of such laws including minute changes which shall be brought for better understanding and implementation of the available rights.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY

On-line copyright issues in India are found in the following enactments;

1. The Copyright Act, 1957:
2. The Information Technology Act, 2000.

The relied provisions of the act are as follows:

• The term computer Programme has been defined to mean a set of instructions expressed in words, codes, schemes or in any other form, capable of causing a computer to perform a particular task or achieve a particular result. And it must be noted that Section 13(a) read with Section 2(o) confers a copyright in computer Programme.
• The copyright in a work is infringed if it is copied or published without the prior consent of its owner. The Copyright Act provides that a work is published or made available to the public then such providers may be held liable for copyright violation.
• The copyright in a work shall be deemed to be infringed when a person, without a license granted by the owner of the copyright or the Registrar of Copyrights under this Act or in contravention of the conditions of a license so granted or of any condition imposed by a competent authority under this Act: Does anything, the exclusive right to do which is by this Act conferred upon the owner of the copyright, or Permits for profit any place to be used for the communication of the work to the public where such communication constitutes an infringement of the copyright in the work.

FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

The future of copyright in India:  This pre supposes the provisions for anti-circumvention and Rights Management Information in the context of Indian regimes so as to introduce changes to the copyright laws. Although India is not a part of the WCT or WPPT, such changes might be helpful in solving upcoming problems.

The amendments in the Copyright Act that took place in 1994 have also helped in the improvement of the situation of copyright infringement laws in India. Piracy relating to medical textbooks was one serious area of infringement before the amendment took place.

Section 64 of the Indian Copyright Act 1957 provides that no police officer below the rank of a sub-inspector may seize any such copyrighted work or articles without warrant but other officers might seize such work without any warrant if the act satisfies the conditions of an offence under Section 63 of the act, which relates to infringements. And such copies of work seized shall be produced before a magistrate as soon as possible.

The intellectuals have compared the copying of a book to be similar to stealing jewellery and the large scale copying of such books have been termed as robbing a jewellery shop by them.

Thus, as it has been mentioned earlier copyright does not protect the idea but the skills and labour put in by those authors in producing the work. And any person cannot be held liable for copyright infringement if he/she has taken only the idea involved in the work. And it is also seen that two different authors can use the same information for producing two different works with their own knowledge, just the language used should not be copied including the arrangements of information.

Thus I would like to conclude by saying that although piracy is taking place at high rates in various fields and the real owners of the various works are being deprived of the profits they deserve yet there is quite less piracy in India compared to other nation and publishers are trying their best to enforce copyrights. Particularly in books there is seen to be much less piracy than the other fields of infringements and the law is required to be tightened in such fields to curb the problems of piracy. 

CONCLUSION

The various provisions of the mentioned acts and enactments prove that copyright protection is quite effective to take proper care of the rights of such copyright owners and extends not only to the traditional meaning of the aspect but also the modern aspects of the such infringements in India. Online issues have also been taken into consideration and are being protected sufficiently. 

To meet the challenges imposed by the developing technologies the existing laws need to interpreted in a way so as to cover all the aspects of Copyright, which can be gained by the technique of purposive interpretation. This technique requires the interpretation of laws in a manner which ensures there is administration of justice to the facts of the case.

Also this research proposes the amendment of existing laws as per the requirements of the current situation in our country. And the study also suggests supplementation of older laws with new ones to deal with the modern or present day problems. The IT Act 2000 shall also be modified accordingly to meet the future problems or challenges inflicted by the rights called Intellectual Property Rights and till the country develops a very strong and sound base for the protection of such legal rights, more emphasis by the judiciary shall be to protect the various rights of individuals, most importantly copyright.

Although according to the facts the position of our country is not in a bad situation as perceived earlier from previous resources, there is still the requirement of minute changes in the mentioned acts which may help tackle any such problems more effectively and hence provide a better solution. India as a nation has always been developing and the amendments in law have only brought development in the areas of concern.

REFERENCE

•  Copyright Act, 1957 – An Act to amend and consolidate the law relating to copyright.
•  MyAdvo has a network of best copyright lawyers in India. Start by sending us an email at info@myadvo.in or call us at +919811782573.
• Copyright Infringement By WILL KENTON Updated June 11, 2020 Crime & Fraud

• http://www.manupatrafast.com/articles/PopOpenArticle.aspx?ID=394e7bf3-9764-4ae9-a530-2713b4120a89&txtsearch=Subject:%20Intellectual%20Property%20Rights
• http://www.rmlnlu.ac.in/webj/alok_kumar_ya dav.pdf
• https://www.indialaw.in/blog/blog/law/analysis-of-doctrines-sweat-of-brow-modicum-of-creativity-originality-in-copyright/
• https://info.legalzoom.com/forms-copyright-infringement-23122.html
• https://www.copyrightuser.org/understand/exceptions/quotation/ 
• Copyright infringement and remedies in India by Anand and Anand