This article has been written by Shweta Jha from University of Mumbai, during her internship at LeDroit.
INTRODUCTION
With the increase in digitalization, the online content generating and sharing has been in the gigantic proportion; with the easy access to internet it has become very effortless/easy to the people to copy the contents online and every people think that they are the 1st owner of that content. The copy of the onine content by the any person other than the original owner is a crime and violates the provision of under Intellectual Property Rights. “Copyright is not just with respect to your written content, but also to numerous other form-factors such as using images, lyrics, soundtracks, videos, or parts of it, without legal permission or authority”.
Copyright is an Intellectual Property governed under Copyright Act,1957. The primary goal of the Act is to protect the rights of the originanl content creators. Under Section 14 of the Copyright Act, no person without the permission of the owner of the work has the right to copy, publish or communicate it to the public.
HOW TO CLAIM COPYRIGHT
Here are the four easy steps to claim copyright over your content/work:
- Add a copyright symbol ©.
- Gather all the materials you wish to copyright.
- Complete the copyright registration application.
- Create a schedule to copyright new material on a regular basis.
COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT
Copyright is important for all forms of media because it provides legal ownership of the work. This allows the author to keep control over the circulation and uses of his/her content. Without copyright laws, content could be stolen from the original creator and used by someone else claiming the false ownership; thus, a profit could be made by someone other than the original creator from content that they put no effort into. It is vital to keep a close eye on the content and how it is used by others on the internet. Copyright has become important for online content since with a single click of ‘copy’ button the content of some creator can be stolen. Chapter XI of the Copyright Act, 1957 deals with the infringement of copyright.
Copyright infringement occurs when any of the following occur:
i. When a person, withour a licence granted by the owner of the copyright or the Registrar of Copyright does anything for which the exclusive rights by the Act has been conferred upon to the owner of the copyright
ii. Permit a place to be used for infringing purposes on a profit basis
iii. Makes for sale or hire, or sells or lets for hire, or by way of trade displays or offers for sale or hire any infringing copies
iv. Distributes for the purpose of trade to such extent that it affect the owner of the copyright.
v. Exhibit the copies in public or imports by way of trade.
LEGAL REMEDY
In case of copyright Infringement, the content creators are bestowed upon certain legal remedies for protecting their rights against their content/work, there are three kinds of remedies available for the protection of infringement of copyright i.e. Civil, Criminal and administrative, among them; Civil remedies are the most preferable one, Criminal remedy is little less preferable from the Civil remedy and Administrative remedy is the least preferable among all.
Following are the brief details of abovementioned remedies:
- Civil remedies (Chapter XII of Copyright Act, 957)
i. Section 55 Copyright Act, 957 provides that where the infrigement of copyright has been done; tne owner of the copyright shall be provided the remedies by way of injunction, damages, account or otherwise may be conferred by law of infringement of a right.
ii. Decree for the whole or part of the profits made by the infringer by the sale of the infringing work/copies if the court finds it reasonable.
iii. The court may on it’s discretion provide the cost of all parties in respect to the infringement.
- Criminal remedies (Chapter XIII of Copyright Act, 957)
i. Section 63 of Copyright Act, 957 provides Punishment for infringement of copyright with imprisonment for term not less than six months but may extend to three years and fine which shall not be less than Rs. 50,000/- rupees but may extend to Rs. 2,00,000/-.
ii. Section 64 of Copyright Act, 957 provides the Seizure of infringing copies.
iii. Section 66 of Copyright Act, 957 provides delivery of the infringed copies to the original owner owner of the creator.
- Administrative remedies
Administrative remedies consist of moving the Registrar of copyrights to ban the import of infringing copies into India when the infringement is by way of such importation and the delivery of the confiscated infringing copies to the owner of the copyright and seeking the delivery.
CASE LAW
UTV Software Communication Ltd., v.1337X.TO and Ors
Issue: How the Court mustt deal with the ‘Rogue Websites’ which on being blocked; multiply and resurface as mirror?
Facts: UTV Software Communications Ltd (Plaintiff)., is a company engaged in creating content, producing and distributing cinematographic content around the world. The plaintiff has brought a suit against thirty identified websites, multiple John Doe defendants, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the Dept of Telecom and various ISPs. The contention of the plaintiff was based on the fact that the defendant websites host and provide access to their copyrighted content which infringes their rights derived from the Copyright Act, 1957. The plaintiffs provided access to a sample of such infringing content as evidence that the websites were primarily engaging in online piracy. Majority of the websites did not respond to the summons presumably since they were hosted outside of India and due to that an amicus curia was appointed in their place as the issue was pertaining to be a question of law of general public importance.
Judgement: The most notable contribution this case made was that it introduced a new procedure to extend website blocking injunctions beyond those specified in the court order but also to those websites which are ‘mirror/alphanumeric/redirect’ websites created after the injunction order was already passed by the court. This extension was termed as ‘dynamic injunction’. Singapore High Court’s decision in Disney v M1 was referred by the High Court of Delhi while deciding on the issue where their court introduced the concept of ‘dynamic injunction’ whereby a plaintiff could file an additional affidavit stating to the court why a new website fell within the purview of an existing blocking order, and forwarding the same to an ISP, which could dispute the merits of the blocking order. This process would provide to be helpful in curtailing piracy by such ‘Rogue Websites’ and reduce the burden on the copyright owners to go through the tough route of litigation over and again.
CONCLUSION
Copyright is applied to the content which are original and not dublicate. It is important for teh content creators to copyright their online content to save it from being copied by anothers. Copyright grants the owner of a content exclusive rights to copying, distributing, preparing derivative works based on a work and performing or displaying the work publicly. It ensures that authors are the sole owners of their work. While copyrighting your website’s content can be a long process, it requires relatively little work and provides important benefits to your site. Registration of your online content can ensure that both your content and your income are protected.
According to business attorney William Goldman, founder of Goldman Law Group PLCC in Washington, D.C., filing for copyright registration “provides proof of ownership and eligibility for statutory damages.” He adds, “Also, registration is required for bringing a lawsuit for copyright infringement.”
