How to use Copyrighted Content in India?

How to use Copyrighted Content in India?
Karan Singh
| Updated: Apr 29, 2021 | Category: Copyright

Copyrighted content is the content whose owner has the legal rights to use the work. However, for this, the work should be going for Copyright Registration. The Copyright Act, 1957, manages Copyright Registration. This registration grants the exclusive right to the owner or creators of artistic, dramatic, literary, and musical works and the creators of cinematograph films and sound recordings. Such rights delivered under the Copyright Act, 1957[1] comprise work reproduction, communication of the work to the general public, variation and translation of the work. There are scale and duration of the Copyright protection, which may vary as per the Copyright Law and your work’s nature. In this blog, we are going to discuss how you can use copyrighted content.

Ways to use the Copyrighted Content in India

There are two different ways to use the copyrighted content, and you may come across either of the cases:

Ways to use the Copyrighted Content in India
  • When Prior Permission is required to use to copyrighted content;
  • When no permission is required.

Not, let’s discuss both in brief:

When Prior Permission is Required

  • Who is the Copyright Owner?

We all are making Copyright works all the time, intentionally or unintentionally. For instance, writing an email, taking a selfie, etc. Finding the owner of the Copyright may turn into a fiddly business.

  • Creator of the Copyrighted Work is alive or Not

The initial step is to get in touch with the original creator of the work and check whether the creator is alive or not. You should seek the written permission to use their work.

  • Does the original creator of the work Reproduction Rights (RR) and Performing Rights Organisations (PRO)?

There are specific organisations to which the creator of the work can subscribe to get their work royalty. Such organisations are known as Reproduction Rights (RR) and Performing Rights Organisations (PRO). Performing Rights Organisations deal with the public concerning work on the level of national such as Music. Whereas, Reproduction Rights deal with work such as medical, technical and cultural work on the global & national level.

  • If the Publisher is active and still in business?

In the present situation, creators or authors trying to keep their rights to themselves rather than handover to the publishers. You have to check whether the Publisher has the power over the work that you are trying to use. You need to check; it may be feasible that Publisher has gone out of work or been taken over by another publisher, and it is complicated to find out the original owner of the copyrighted work, as it is not obligatory to file the application of Copyright Transfer.

  • What is the original creator or author who has already assigned their work to someone else?

If the original creator or author of the work has assigned the work to others such as Publisher or record label as part of their job, they have to call the company or entity. You could always contact the licensing department for permission. However, it would be best to remember that the creator’s work might be owned by another company rather than whom they assigned before.

  • In case the creator or author work is not alive or dead

If the original creator or author of the work is not live, then it automatically passes on to the beneficiary of the creator. It’s challenging to search the family members of the creator/author. You have to always look at the obituary online, in the case of the well-known creator; you may visit their Wikipedia page for further information or more reference.

It might be feasible that the creator or author of the original work has some form of establishment in a dedicated library. Sometimes, it happens that such authors have an establishment or a library in their name. In case the author dies, the Copyrights are granted to that establishment or library. You can also search online to find the information related to such authors.

  • There may be a possibility that work you are striving to use doesn’t belong to anyone

There are different works in the market whose actual owner can’t be determined, and it looks unrealistic to set up the inheritance rights in such situations. The correct owner was never aware of the rights to the copyrighted content or work. Usually, it happens when the Copyright outlive their inheritor because Copyright lasts for a particular period after the author passes away.

When No Prior Permission is Required

  • Have you published the work under the open license?

Whenever work is published under the open license, for instance, creative commons, that work can be utilised by someone else, as long as you obey the terms of their Copyright License.

  • Check whether the Copyrighted content is in Public Domain or not

If the Copyrighted content belongs to the public domain, then it won’t have any Copyright holder. First, you have to know the difference between the work under the public domain and the publicly accessible work. Publicly accessible work may or may not come under the public domain. Copyrighted content under the public domain signifies that it is not safeguarded by the Copyright Law, and it can be used by anyone without any interference.

Generally, in India, this happens if the work has no Copyright or it’s been expired already; in such case, it comes under the public domain.

  • Can you state the Fair Use of Copyrighted content for using any work or content?

There is no need to take permission from the Copyright owner for the copyrighted content if that work falls under the category of fair use. It may be a tricky business, so it’s always recommendable to take some professional advice on such issues.

Conclusion

So for the next time you come across any form of content and have inventions to use it somewhere. Check all the guidelines mentioned above to reach the Copyright owner. For any help regarding how to use copyrighted content, please contact any professional expert.

Also, Read: How you can Copyright your Graphic Design in India?

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Karan Singh

A legal writing enthusiast, a wanderer, and a zealous reader. After gaining a lot of knowledge about the diverse legal topics and developing research skills, Karan joined the league of legal content writers to deliver quality-rich blogs.

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