COPYRIGHT ACT

Indian copyright laws are contained in the Indian Copyrights Act 1957 which is in consonance
with the international laws on copyright like TRIPS. Indian laws after being subjected to
amendments, reflect the principles of Berne Convention for protection of literary and artistic
works, 1866.

Here the article mainly focuses on major rights of the owner of the work that are protected by the
Indian Copyright Act. These are economic and the moral rights of the owner. The term
Economic Rights refers to the exclusive right of the right holder to authorise or prohibit the
reproduction, distribution, exportation or importation, or other exploitative activities, such as
rental and lending, public performance, communication to the public and adaptation in cases of
copyrighted work or use and storage in cases of trademarks, of the by IPR protected creation by
third parties, which have not previously obtained a license, within the borders of the states in
which the intellectual property right has been granted or obtained.

The concept of Moral Rights relies on the connection between a person and their creation, as
moral rights constitute the right of the creator to protect the integrity and ownership of their work
to maintain the “indestructible creational bond” that exists between their personality and their
creation, and as such can only be held by a natural person. India incorporated moral rights into
its copyright law framework by way of the Copyright Act 1957. Section 57 1 of the act
specifically addresses authors' special rights, with a clear emphasis on extending such rights
beyond purely economic considerations. These moral rights have been given statutory
recognition and comprise the right to:

 claim authorship of a work (the so-called 'right to attribution' or 'paternity right'); and

 Prevent any distortion, modification or mutilation of a work which would be prejudicial

to the author's reputation (the so-called 'integrity right').

The first case pertaining to authors' moral rights – Mannu Bhandari v Kala Vikas Pictures Ltd
2
came 30 years after the Copyright Act's enactment. In this case, the court examined the
substance of the protection granted by the integrity right under Section 57(1)(b) of the act. The
1
Indian Copyrights Act, 1957, § 57.
2
Mannu Bhandari v. Kala Vikas Picture Ltd., 1986 SCC OnLine Del 238.

1
case pertained to the adaptation of the plaintiff's novel AapKa Bunty into the defendants'
film Samay Ki Dhara. The court had to consider whether the adaptation amounted to mutilation
or distortion of the author's work. Although the parties eventually reached a settlement among
themselves, the court took the opportunity to scrutinise Section 57 and held that the words 'other
modification' must be read ejusdem generis with the words 'distortion' and 'mutilation'. The court
observed that Section 57 is the statutory recognition of an author's intellectual property and must
be protected with special care. Hence, a modification will be found to violate Section 57 if it:

 results in the modified work appearing quite different from the original; or

 Amounts to a perversion of the original.

The Delhi High Court's verdict in Amar Nath Sehgal v Union of India 3 is perhaps the most
prominent judgment to deal with the issue of an author exercising their moral rights after
assigning copyright. The court observed that a privileged relationship exists between a creative
author and their work. The court stressed the need to protect an author's paternity right and
integrity right. These rights cannot be negated or waived by the terms of a contract for
assignment.

3
Amar Nath Sehgal v. Union of India, 2002 SCC OnLine Del 390.