EMERGING TRENDS IN

COPYRIGHT LAW
LAW OF INDIA
Copyright is the property right the law gives authors/creators and those taking ownership from them to
control the copying and others forms of exploitation of their creation or works. The traditional view is
that arouse out of lobbying by printers to prevent the piracy of their books. So, in one sense it was a
response by vested economic interests to the growth of a new technology.

The copyright law in historical chronicles is known to be the legacy of technology. It has undergone
methodical changes keeping in view the nature, extent and domain of technology involved to secure the
public interest of imagination, invention and resourcefulness. Its main thrust is to provide adequate incentives
to authors and creators of miscellaneous copyright works, on the one hand, and make such works reachable
to the public on the other hand.

Digital technology poses a number of challenges to copyright. The two most significant aspects of the
digitalisation of copyright works (so a photograph, for example, can be scanned into a image file) and the
creation of a new purely products (such as software). Second, the growth of networks such as internet which
allow the rapid global transmission of digital information. The copyright law had to adjust itself between the
need to award the creator and the attractiveness of making such works public. With the ubiquity of the
Internet as a exceptional and wholly new intermediate of all-inclusive human communiqué all over the
world, shrunk into a digital global village, the protection of copyright works has become a serious concern for
lawyers, as well as, the other stakeholders. The Internet together with computer networks makes it possible
for an more and more larger number of those to participate in collective information construction, thereby

debilitate the efforts to provide encouragements to original creators of intellectual property.

Government of India in 1998 passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which updated copyright
laws to address the realities of Digital Technology at present . With the growth and development of
Technology and more particularly digitization, the entire world has  recognized the need for a Digital
Copyright Law. Therefore, the existing Copyright law was evolved, as the trend of maintaining records in the
form of Digital data clearly requires protection a need felt all around the world. The  second limb of the
DMCA 1998 was it dealt with the technological measures used by authors to protect their copyright.
However, this was severely criticized by the critics who state that this legislation prevented scientific research
and academic development; although the DMCA had a good impact in updating copyright law for the digital
environment, as it was the first legislation of its kind. .

The advancement in technology postured new challenges to the current copyright laws, as the
law was primarily developed in the regime of print media that slowly evolved its protective
works to include creative works, paintings, drawings, sculptures, which later expanded to
photography and cinema as well. The age old legislations and their core concepts in copyright
law had to be reentered, so as to make digital societal record progress. The technical copiers or
recorders made the digital data easily available with the increase in use of the internet , which
could lead to manipulation of the work vis a vis a free flow of information in society, as the
moment this digital record is placed in the public domain on the internet the author loses all
control.

Evolving legal frameworks and the

Surrounding debates
In each analysed economy policy makers recognize the importance of copyright-related legislation
as a tool to maximise innovation and creativity. These legal copyright frameworks were established well
before the Internet revolution.
The most common areas of amendments and current debates that were identified in the analysed
Country like india studies are:
• scope of copyrights
• orphan works
• copyright limitations and exceptions
• copyright registration
• enforcement

An Indian Perspective:
In India the Copyright Act does not fix a liability on the ISPs for infringement of Digital Copyright.
Therefore, as an initiative the Information Technology Act 2000 redressed the issue of fixing
liability on the ISPs for infringement. It states that no Service Provider was responsible for an
offence committed or for violations happening without his knowledge, if the service provider has
exercised all due diligence to prevent the violations. 

Indian law resembles the provisions of the US Home Recording Act 1992, as section 52 of the
Indian copyrights Act 1957 describes the concept of fair use exception. It exempts works done
for private use or for criticizing or reviewing of the work. However the major drawback in Indian
law is the Indian Copyright Law does not implement the anti circumvention provisions under the
WCT and WPPT, as US and UK have done. Therefore, there are no provisions that prohibit
circumvention of digital rights management systems in India. Therefore, there is piracy
happening benefiting the users, who are getting copyrighted material at half the cost. On the
contrary the owners are getting publicity, fame and prosperity vis s vis loosing out on opportunity
to sell their original works that would have yielded them good revenue. The only remedy at the
moment is to initiate legal action under the Copyright Act to prevent piracy. 

Development in copyright act in india

India’s Copyright Act, 1957 has been significantly amended. In May 2012, both houses of the
Indian Parliament unanimously placed their seal on the Copyright Amendment Bill, 2012,
bringing Indian copyright law into compliance with the World Intellectual Property
Organization “Internet Treaties”.
Leaders of the opposition in both houses and representatives from various parties gave
spirited support to the bill tabled by the government.
The Copyright Act, 1957 had been amended five times prior to 2012, once each in the years
1983, 1984, 1992, 1994 and 1999, to meet with the national and international requirements.
The 2012 amendments make Indian Copyright Law compliant with the Internet Treaties –
the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty
(WPPT).
Also, while introducing technological protection measures, the amended law ensures that fair
use survives in the digital era by providing special fair use provisions. The amendments have
made many author-friendly amendments, special provisions for disabled, amendments
facilitating access to works and other amendments to streamline copyright administration.
Overall the amendments introduced are forward looking. This will enable the Copyright Act
1957 to become as one of the best copyright legislations in the world

COPYRIGHT (AMENDMENT) ACT

2012
Commissioned Works and Works under Contract of Employment

According to Section 17 of the original Act, the author is the first owner of copyrights in a work
unless such work is commissioned by another person or is created under a contract of service or
employment, in which cases the employer or the person commissioning the work is the owner. A
new proviso has been added to the section providing that the logic or notion of commissioned work
or work created under employment does not accord ownership to the employer where such work is
incorporated in a cinematograph film[4]. 
Assignment of Copyrights and Right to Royalties

. The amendment has added three new provisos to Section 18[5]

:Firstly, an assignment made under this section is not applicable to any medium or mode of
exploitation that is not in existence at the time of the assignment unless specifically mentioned in
the assignment agreement.

Secondly, the author of a literary or musical work incorporated in a cinematograph film cannot
assign or wave his right to receive ‘equal share of royalties’ from the ‘assignee’ for utilisation of such
work in any form other than communication to the public in a cinema hall

mwaive his right to receive equal share of royalties from the ‘assignee’ for utilisation of such work in
any form.

Provisions for Persons with Disabilities

The amended section 52(1)(zb) allows any person to facilitate access by persons
with disabilities to copyrighted works without any payment of compensation to
the copyright holder, and any organization working the benefit of persons with
disabilities to do so as long as it is done on a non-profit basis and with
reasonable steps being taken to prevent entry of reproductions of the copyrighted
work into the mainstream

Digital Rights Management (DRM)

Section 65A(1)[10] seeks to make circumvention of “effective technological measure” on copyrighted

material a criminal offence, with imprisonment for a maximum period of two years. The word
“effective” is rather vague and can also be interpreted to mean that circumvention of technological
measures which are easy to circumvent. Based on the usual doctrines applied in intellectual property
laws, the courts may adopt an interpretation along the lines of; if a common man who has no special
skills which enable her/him to circumvent such technological measures, manages to do so, then such
technological protection measures cannot be said to fall within the purview of “effective
technological measures”. In modern times, professional hackers and crackers are generally
youngsters with no special training, so determining whether a person has ‘special skills’ or not may
sometimes become difficult to prove.

Procedures Simplified

The amendment to section 21 of the Copyright Act, which deals with the right of authors to
relinquish copyright, allows the author to relinquish the copyright by a simple public notice.

Limited Protection to Some Internet Intermediaries

The amendments to section 52, which provide some level of protection to 'transient or incidental'
storage of a work or performance either purely in the technical process of electronic transmission or
communication to the public, or for the purpose of providing electronic links, where such link has
not been expressly prohibited by the right holder, unless the person responsible is aware or has
reasonable grounds for believing that such storage is of an infringing copy. This provision would
protect search engines which provide hyperlinks to other website

Conclusion

The Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2012 has added some provisions to Indian Copyright Law which
have not yet been incorporated in several developed countries. It is a boon to authors of copyrights
as well as users of the copyright. The clarifications on what amounts to infringement have relieved
those, who have always advocated ‘fair use’, but feared allegations of infringement.

However, the issue of ‘parallel imports’, which is discussed in detail has not been addressed by the
Amendment Act at all. Provisions of parallel imports can be found in Section 107A (b)[20] of the
Indian Patent Act, 1970 and Section 30(3)[21] of the Trademarks Act, 1999.

Also, Other than the disability rights groups, which had campaigned very hard for the amendment to
section 52(1)(zb), the Parliamentary Standing Committee did not invite any non-industrial groups for
deposition before it. It is perhaps for this reason that the amendments do not focus on rights of
small-time lyricists, writers or composers. The Standing Committee should have deposed persons
from all the relevant groups. Provisions affecting the rights of libraries were passed without even
calling a single person running a library or working in one.

Section 65A relating to DRM should be amended so as to replace or delete or explain the word
“effective”. There is indeed a need for laws which restrict the adoption and use of DRM systems on
certain classes of copyrighted material. However, it should also provide that it be compulsory for the
manufacturers who are using DRM to make freely available their contact information, in case any
user wishes to seek permission to break the DRM system for legal use.

The recent Modifications to the Indian copyright law have certainly given room for using creative
lawyering skills to develop and structure innovative business models to help the industries
effectively deal with the changes.