Enforcement of Copyright in India

Copyright is a legal word created for protecting the author’s rights that the creators have in their artistic and literary works. Copyright work covers its range from music, books, sculpture, paintings, sculpture, and includes films, databases, computer programs, maps, advertisements, and technical drawings.

Copyright extends its protection to only to expressions, and the protection is not for the ideas, methods, procedure of operation or to the mathematical concepts. With time there are various ways by which a person is infringing the Copyright and hence the Copyright Act provides with the remedies against them. Let us continue to read this article for knowing the enforcement of Copyright in India.

What is Copyright?

One of the intellectual property rights i.e. Copyright is automatically given to the author or the creator of the original work, copyright protection gives the author exclusive right to distribute and reproduce the copyrighted work.

The following original works get the Copyright protection:

• Literary works
• Dramatic works
• Musical works
• Artistic works
• Cinematographic works
• Sound recording

Copyrights protection is given to two kinds of rights:

• Economic rights: permits the owner to obtain the financial reward when someone else uses their work.
• Moral rights: this right allows the author of the original work to take actions with the purpose to protect and preserve their work.

Enforcement of Copyright  

The authors of Copyright create their new work and get their Copyright protected to ensure that they get profit from the work and effort they have created. The owner has the exclusive authority to sell his work and to give a license to the third party who can utilize his work. In case, if someone reproduces or duplicates the copyright work of the holder without his permission, then this will lead to infringement of Copyright, in which the owner can take legal action and i.e. enforcement of Copyright against the infringer.

Remedies for Enforcement of Copyright

1. Civil remedy: In accordance with Section 55 of The Copyright Act, 1957^[1], when there is infringement of the copyright work, and then the owner or the author of the Copyright shall be entitled to civil remedy by way of damages, injunction, damages or the accounts of profits, the delivery of the infringing material and cost of the legal proceedings.
2. Criminal remedy: According to Section 63 of The Copyright Act, 1957, the holder of Copyright can take a criminal proceeding against the person infringing his right, for enforcement of Copyright there is punishment of imprisonment of at least six-months, which can be extended to 3 years as well as fine of Rs. 50,000, which can extend upto 2 lakhs.

Provided that where the defendant proves that on the date of the copyright infringement he had no reasonable ground to believe and that he was not knowing that there was already a copyright subsisting in that work, then in such case the plaintiff will not be entitled for enforcement of copyright infringement and the plaintiff will not get any remedy for the whole or any part of the profit that is made by the defendant by selling or using the infringing copies as the court deems reasonable in the given circumstances.

Under Section 51 of the Copyright Act it specifies about the infringement of Copyright. As per Section 51 of the Act, Copyright is deemed to be infringed if:

• Any other person has without obtaining the permission from the owner of the copyright holder has used his work and have done any act which the copyright holder is only authorised to do. The author of the Copyright will have the right for enforcement of copyright work.
• A person will allow any place that can be used for selling, communication, exhibition or distribution of an infringing work only if it is proved that he had no reason to believe or that he was not aware that such permission will lead to the violation of Copyright.
• A person who is importing the infringed copies of the author’s work.
• A person reproduces the author’s work in any form without obtaining the authority from the copyright holder.

Exception to Infringement

Under Sec.52 of the Copyright Act, 1957 these are the exceptions to the infringement of Copyright and the author cannot go for enforcement of Copyright if the work of the author is used for:

• Personal or private use, including the use for research, study and development
• Any criticism or review on the author’s work whether of that work or related to that work
• The reporting of the current affairs and the present events, including reporting of the lecture delivered in a public place.

Conclusion

The enforcement of Copyright in India provides for both civil remedies and criminal remedies. Hence, the purpose of Copyright is to protect the author’s work. In India, the government body that is authorized for promoting and enforcing the Copyright is the Copyright Office. Hence, the author is entitled to claim enforcement of Copyright in case of any infringement.

Read our article:What are the Benefits of Copyright Registration in India?