India is a land of history and culture. It has given birth to various creative geniuses whose original literary, artistic, dramatic and cinematographic works have placed India on the world map for artistic and other kinds of excellence.
However, the law has not been able to protect the intellectual property rights of talented people from various fields.
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The Government of India brought into effect the Copyright Act, 1957. The law was primarily enacted to provide protection to the copyright of the authors and creators of original literary, dramatic, artistic and cinematographic work. This Act has been the backbone for protecting copyrights of the respective rights holders since 1957. However with the passage of time, it clearly became evident that the provisions of the Copyright Act alone were not sufficient to efficiently and effectively protect copyright and other intellectual property rights of the owners.
Consequently a need was felt for amending Indian copyright law so as to keep it in sync with the realities of the times.
Meanwhile the last decade-and-a-half has seen a tremendous adoption of the electronic format. The advent of the Internet has brought with it various challenges to the traditional concepts of copyright. In order to make the Indian Copyright Act more relevant in today's networked world, the Government of India started working on coming up with certain amendments to the law.
After a lot of deliberations, the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010 was placed before Parliament. The Lok Sabha passed the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010 on 22 May 2012 after the same had already been passed by Rajya Sabha on 17 May. Having been passed in both the Houses of Parliament, it only has to go to the President for her assent before it comes into promulgation.
When one peruses through the salient features and highlights of the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010, one comes across a picture of significant proactive action being taken so as to make the Indian copyright law more in sync and relevant in the context of the networks and the electronic ecosystem. The Indian Copyright Act, 1957 did not deal with electronic format since that was not the preferred format at the time of the passing of such legislation. However with increased usage of the electronic format, the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010 has made the Copyright Act cover all kinds of activities in the electronic format or electronic medium. Thus, all activities done using computers, computer systems, computer networks, computer resources and communication devices, as also data and information in the electronic form would also be subject to the ambit of the applicability of the Copyright Act.
The new amendments have also sought to provide lyricists and artists a level-playing field with respect to music companies and producers and allows them to negotiate the terms of the royalty for their artistic creation. Thanks to the new amendments, authors, writers, screen players, lyricists, music directors, singers and artists will now be entitled to royalty for their artistic and musical creations.
The last few decades also saw the advent of radio and television broadcasting in a big way. However, this also saw radio and television broadcasters using copyrighted works without paying royalty. As per the new amendments now, it has been mandated for radio and television broadcasters to pay royalty to the owners of the copyright each time the work of art is broadcast.
The new amendments have also sought to provide effective protective framework for physically challenged or disabled persons. The new amendments specifically exempt works prepared for the benefit of the physically challenged in special formats such as Braille, from copyright. Further in order to assist and help disabled persons, the new amendments permit compulsory license to be granted for a certain number of copies in non-special formats to not-for-profit organisations which are working in the area of protecting and preserving the cause of disabled persons.
Another remarkable feature of the new amendment is that they protect performers in the digital and electronic ecosystem. The new amendments allow performers to make their sound of visual recording of their performances and reproduce the same in any medium.
The definition of the term visual recording has been now expanded to mean the recording in any medium by any method including the storing of it by any electronic means, moving images or the representations thereof, from which they can be perceived, reproduced or communicated by any method.
Further, the new amendments has made the circumvention of effective technological measures applied for the purposes of protecting any rights conferred by the Copyright Act with the intention of infringing such rights as an offence punishable with two years and fine. Further, knowingly removing or altering any rights management information without authority has also been created as a separate new offence.
The concept of fair use has been expanded to give exemptions to students as they use the artistic, literary or dramatic or cinematographic works for research purposes. The aforementioned are some of the important highlights that have been brought by the new amendments.
All eyes are now on the date when the said amendments will be implemented. The implementation of the Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2010 is likely to herald a new era of impetus to the growth of creativity in all areas of human endeavours and action in India. Of particular relevance would also be the fact that effective measures need to be taken to ensure that the implementation of the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010 is in right earnestness in order to protect legitimate copyright holders who are having copyright in their original works whether literary, dramatic, cinematographic or artistic. Together in promoting the cause of copyright and in protecting and preserving the rights of copyright holders lies the foundation for a strong vibrant growth and economy of any nation.
The author is Advocate, Supreme Court of India, and a leading Cyberlaw expert. He can be contacted at pavan@pavanduggal.com and pavanduggal@yahoo.com.
