Introduction to Copyright

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 COPYRIGHT
• Copyright is a form of protection given to the authors
/creators of original work.
• This property can be sold and transferred.
• Copyright law assures ownership, which comes with several
rights, that the author has exclusively. For example:

 Make copies of the work

 Distribute copies of the work
 Perform the work publically
 Display the work publically
 Make derivative works
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• Copyright holder may grant the permission or license
anyone else to do these things, without affecting
their ownership of the actual copyright in their work.
For example: An author may permit a television
adaptation of their book to be made and broadcast.
• Law provides certain ways in which copyright works
may be used without the need to obtain permission
form copyright holder- these include:
• Fair use
• Public Domain
• Library privilege
• Copying for examination and copying for instruction
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• Copyright protection is automatic at the
moment work is created and fixed in a
tangible form that it is perceptible.
• Copyrightable work:
Literary work
Dramatic Work
Musical work
Artistic work
• Non-copyrightable work
Facts, ideas, systems etc,
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 Copyright : Meaning
• The word copy has a range of meanings: transcript, imitation,
reproduction of an original writing or painting etc.
• Creators of literary artistic or musical works in ancient times did
not worry about their work being copied. However, the question
of copyright came to the fore when the printing technology
made its appearance. The first to be affected adversely by
printing were the authors whose books/works could be copied in
large numbers by unauthorised persons, who would reap the
benefits depriving the authors of just rewards of their
intellectual work.
• Later as technology advanced, several other categories of
originators of intellectual works were included under copyright:
literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, cinematograph film, sound
recording.
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 The object of copyright law
• To encourage authors, composers, artists and designers
to create original works by rewarding them with an
exclusive right for a limited period. Such exclusive rights
are permitted for literary, dramatic, musical, artistic,
cinematograph film and sound recordings. Licensing the
right to publishers, film producers and music record
manufacturers permits the economic exploitation.
• The law also aims at preventing anyone from
reproducing or exploiting another person’s work without
authorisation.

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 History of Copyright Law in India
• Modern copyright law developed in India
gradually, in what we may identify roughly as
three distinct phases spanning more than 150
years

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 Historical Evolution

1847 – Phase I

1914 – Phase II

1957 – Phase III

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 Characteristics
Essentials of of Copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a
creation of
Statute

Copyright exit
in expression of Copyright is a
an idea and not Multiple rights
the idea itself.

Originality

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 Copyright is a creation of a statute
• It is a creation of a statute.
• No copyright can exist in any work except as provided I
section 16 of the Act.
• No copyright except as provided in this Act.—No person
shall be entitled to copyright or any similar right in any
work, whether published or unpublished, otherwise than
under and in accordance with the provisions of this Act or
of any other for the time being in force, but nothing in
this section shall be construed as abrogating any right or
jurisdiction to restrain a breach of trust or confidence.

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 Multiple Rights
• It’s a bundle of Rights.
• Different kind of a copyright has a different set of
rights which are specified in sec 14.
• For example: A film includes
 a written script,
 still images,
 Music etc.
Each of these works has an author who is the first
owner of the copyright in the work.
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 Originality - Meaning
The word ‘original’
Originality with respect to
does not mean that
the expression of the
the work must be the
thought does not require
expression of original
novelty of the expression.
and inventive thought.

The Act only requires

This means that the work
that the work should
should originate solely from
not be copied from
the author.
another work.

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 ISSUE WITH ORGINALITY
• DERIVATIVE WORKS
For example: Creation of thesis using the references
form the thesis which exist already.
Then the issue arises copyright persists with whom??
 With the author who has created the first thesis
 With the author who created the thesis using the
references form the previous thesis
 With both the authors

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In order to decide this issue of derivative works
there are three doctrines:

(a) Sweat of the brow doctrine

(b) Creativity standard Doctrine
(c) Feist Publication Case

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 Sweat of the brow doctrine
• It suggests that labour or industry alone, even in the
absence of a substantial amount of creativity, can be
sufficient to bestow copyright upon the author.
• Traditional approach, It does not consider creativity. It
recognizes the labour put in by the author.
• The Doctrine is providing less protection of the
authorship which already exist and more “ Stopping
the others form misappropriation of labour i.e. If there
is any labour put in any work that labour should be
copyrightable.”
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 Creativity Standard doctrine
• It is opposite of “Sweat of the brow Doctrine”
• It provides that until there is no creativity in
the work, it is not eligible for copyright
protection.
• Author has to do more than just compilation.

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 Feist Publications Inc. v. Rural Telephone
Service Co.
• Facts: Rural Telephone Service Company, Inc. (Plaintiff) provides
telephone service to several communities. Due to a state regulation, it
must issue an annual telephone directory, so it published a directory
consisting of white and yellow pages. The yellow pages have
advertisements that generate revenue. Feist Publications, Inc.
(Defendant) is a publishing company whose directory covers a larger
range than a typical directory. Defendant distributes their telephone
books free of charge, and they also generate revenue through the
advertising in the yellow pages. Plaintiff refused to give a license to
Defendant for the phone numbers in the area, so Defendant used them
without Plaintiff’s consent. Rural sued for copyright infringement.
• Issue. Are the names, addresses, and phone numbers in a telephone
directory able to be copyrighted?

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 Feist Publications Inc. v. Rural Telephone
Service Co.
• Held: No.
Facts cannot be copyrighted, however
compilations of facts can generally be
copyrighted.
To qualify for copyright protection, a work must
be original to the author, which means that the
work was independently created by the author,
and it possesses at least some minimal degree of
creativity.
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 Position in India regarding originality

R.G Anand V. Delux Films and others 1978

R. G. Anand, an architect by profession and also a playwright, dramatist and

producer of several stage plays, wrote and produced a play called ‘Hum Hindustani’
in 1953. It ran successfully and was re-staged in 1954, 1955 and in 1956. Aware of
the interest of the plaintiff in filming the play in view of its increasing popularity, the
defendant, Mr. Mohan Sehgal, contacted plaintiff.
In January, 1955, plaintiff met the defendant and had detailed discussions about the
play and its plot and the desirability of filming it. However, after this discussion, the
plaintiff received no further communication from the defendant. In May, 1955, the
defendant started to make the film ‘New Delhi’, which, the plaintiff gathered, was
based on his play, “Hum Hindustani’. The defendant, however, assured him that it
was not so. In September, 1956, the movie was released and after viewing it, the
plaintiff filed a suit for infringement of his copyright in his play ‘Hum Hindustani’.

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 Position in India regarding originality

ISSUE: Whether the production, distribution and

exhibition of the film ‘New Delhi’ made by the
defendants are in infringement of the plaintiff’s
copyright in the play, ‘Hum Hindustani’?
HOLDING: The supreme court held that the
movie although based on the same concept
was not a copy of the play. Therefore there was
no copyright infringement.

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The Supreme Court issued seven rules to determine if there was
a copyright infringement-
1. There cannot be copyright of any idea, subject matter, plots,
themes or historical or legendary facts and if the violation of
copyright occurred in such cases then it is confined to the
form, manner, arrangement and expression by the author of
copyrighted work.

2. Whether similarities are substantial or fundamental aspects

of mode of expression in the copyrighted work. Copying
should be of substantial and material nature.

3. Test: After having read or seen both the work the viewer get
the impression that subsequent work is copy of original one.

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4. Where theme is similar but being presented differently then,
there cannot be any question of infringement.

5. If there is similarities but also have broad dissimilarities, it

decreases the intention to copy the original work, if similarities
are clearly incidental or coincidently then there can’t be
infringement.

6. If the viewer after the incident got an idea that the film is by
and large a copy of the original play, violation of the copyright
may be said to be proved.

7. Cases where stage play is infringed by a movie director, then

burden of proof will be on the plaintiff.

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 Idea and Expression
• There is no copyright in ideas
• Copyright subsists in original expression of
idea.
• This expression is copyrightable only when it is
expressed in a fixed and material form.
• All works are protected in India as long as
there is original expression of an idea.

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 Idea-expression dichotomy
• fundamental doctrine of copyright law
• According to copyright law only the distinctive
expression of an idea can be copyright
protected, not the idea itself.
• An ‘idea’ essentially means a thought or
mental concept while ‘expression’ is defined
as, the action of making known a thought or
mental concept.

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