Ownership and Authorship of Copyright – An Overview

The Copyright owner has no command in the subject matter of the creation. Other people have the authorization to produce or make a similar result from the regular source provided that they do so independently and the work is unique and original. Another person can create from another work in a similar form, provided he or she does so from the resources available to him or her on its own and makes the work originated by them as a work of their own by his or her labour and industry. Copyright Law doesn’t prevent any person from taking away what is beneficial from an original work and creating new original work with some advancements and additions.

The ownership in Copyright has entirely different suggestions as contrasted against the ownership in substantial materials. It is very popular to all the authors of the original work as the first owner of a work created by them. But this prefix of “first” before “owner” created many irregularities. But the irregularities related to the rule of the first owner do not lessen the authentic importance of ownership of the author of Copyright, which is in the interest of the advancement of knowledge and society’s progress. The ownership & authorship of Copyright are two different concepts. In the blog, we will discuss in detail the idea of ownership and authorship of Copyright.

What is the Ownership and Authorship of Copyright?

The terms ownership and authorship in Copyright are described as follows:

1. Authorship of Copyright: An author or creator is a person who collects, writes, composes, and draws the work in the issue, although the complete idea of the work was suggested by some other person. The foundation behind the idea of an author is that the originator of a sparkling concept is not the Copyright owner in work unless he or she is also the creator of the work. The nationality of an author or a creator is not the primary factor in finding out the tights of an author or a creator to a Copyright under the Copyright Act, 1957^[1]. Though, the existence of Copyright has definite vital requirements under Section 13 (2) of the Copyright Act, 1957. The vital requirements under Section 13(2) of the Copyright Act, 1957 are as follow:

• Unpublished Work: According to Section 7 of the Copyright Act, 1957, where the making of the work was extended for a limited time, the author or the creator of a work should be considered to be a citizen of the nation of which he or she was a citizen or wherein he or she was domiciled for any considerable part of that time period. The unpublished work doesn’t comprise the architectural work.
• Published Work: The original work of an author or a creator should be published in India, or when publication of a work is done outside India, then the author or creator of the work, at the publication date, should be an Indian citizen, if alive at that date, or at the time of the author’s death.
• Architectural Work: such work of an author or creator must be situated in India; only then the work will be deemed as a subject matter of Copyright Registration under the Copyright Act in India.

Apart from this, as a rule, the author or creator of an original work the first owner of the Copyright work. Section 2 (d) of the Copyright Act, 1957 describes the author or creator of various works as follows:

• In the case of literary work/dramatic work, the owner of the work is an author;
• In the case of a photograph, the individual who takes a photograph is the actual author;
• In the condition of cinematographic films, the producer is the author;
• For musical works, the composer of the musical work is the author;
• In the case of artistic, dramatic, literary, or musical work which is computer-generated, an individual who causes the works to be created is the author of such works;
• In the case of artistic works, the artist is the author of the artistic work;
• In the case of recordings of sound, the producer is the author.

According to the Copyright Act, 1957, Section 2 (ffa), a composer of a musical work means any individual who composes the music disregarding the fact that he or she records the musical works in any different kind of graphical notation. The meaning of the composer may not enable them to prove their authorship, except the musical composition is recorded in any form of musical notation. According to the Copyright Act (Section 2 (p)), a musical work means a work including music and include any graphical notation of such musical work but doesn’t consist of any actions/works planned to be spoken, performed or sung with the music.

2. Ownership of Copyright: It is distinct from other ownership/proprietorship in physical material in which work is set. An individual owning a book may not be the original owner of the copyrighted book. According to the Rule, the author or creator is the first owner of the copyrighted work. The laws of Copyright deliver definite exceptions to the rule as mentioned above, which is vital to clearly inspect the two distinct concepts of ownership and authorship of Copyright in India. To clear the above point, if a photograph, a portrait, or a painting is made as an example of any other individual for a helpful consideration, another individual is the 1^st owner of the Copyright in such a case.

The creator or author of a concept of creation is also not the real owner of the copyrighted work unless he or she has created the actual work. Hence, any individual is having any bright idea or thought, and he or she communicates the concept to an author who later goes on to make a play on the similar concept, the creator or author of concept has no right in the product of the artist as a Copyright exists in a tangible form and not in a simple idea.

The Copyright Act, Section 17, delivers for provisions of getting Copyright ownership. The right of ownership is available only if an individual qualifies the provisions of the Copyright Act. In other laws existing in India, no other solution is available to face the infringement of Copyright ownership. Section 17 provides the provisions that the first Copyright owner is defined as the author of an original work. The meaning of the author is defined individually under the Copyright Act to clearly describe the difference between the ownership and authorship of Copyright. The meaning of author concerning various works is delivered under the Act.

Restrictions on the Rights of Ownership and Authorship of Copyright

Following are the restrictions on the rights of ownership and authorship of Copyright:

1. The Copyright Assignment can be finished or partially finished and can be general or subject to definite restrictions;
2. For the purpose of backup, copies of computer programs can also be made;
3. After the Copyright Assignment, the assignee becomes the Copyright holder, and all the Copyright rights except the moral rights become the rights of the assignee;
4. The rights of the Copyright ownership can be transferred by assignment to any other individual;
5. A person can make one copy of the work safeguarded by the Copyright for personal, private, and for non-commercial purposes, which also contains the use for the research purpose;
6. The actual creator or author of the actual work can give up all or any of the rights, including the copyrighted work, by informing in the form as suggested to the Copyrights Registrar.

Conclusion

The idea of ownership and authorship of Copyright is different in India. Each idea of such attracts its unusual rights. There are some circumstances where the ownership and authorship of Copyright is to the similar person that is the Copyright owner is also the Copyright author. In other situations, the author may be distinct from the Copyright owner. Hence, the idea of such ownership and authorship in India are not similar and must be explored before going for Copyright Registration of a work.

Read our article:How to use Copyrighted Content in India?