In-depth analytical articles on Indian Copyright law including prosecution,enforcement, statutory interpretation and case developments.
International intellectual property law rests on a web of multilateral treaties and conventions that establish minimum standards of protection, define reciprocal obligations among member states and create the framework within which domestic copyright systems operate. At the centre of this web, for copyright, is the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works […]
Visual creativity occupies a distinctive place in the copyright landscape. A photograph taken in a fraction of a second, a painting developed over months, a sculpture carved from stone, an architectural elevation drafted with precision each of these represents an act of creative expression that the law recognises and protects, yet each raises questions about
Copyright in Photographs and Artistic Works in India Read More »
The relationship between an author and a publisher is among the oldest and most commercially consequential in the creative economy. It is a relationship built on a fundamental asymmetry: the author possesses the creative work and the copyright that protects it, while the publisher possesses the infrastructure, expertise, distribution networks and capital required to bring
Social media has fundamentally transformed the relationship between copyright law and everyday human behaviour. Before the internet, the act of reproducing, distributing or communicating a copyrighted work to the public was largely confined to publishers, broadcasters and commercial enterprises with the infrastructure to do so at scale. Copyright infringement was, for the most part, a
Copyright Issues in Social Media and User-Generated Content Read More »
Every grant of exclusive rights must, in a society that values both the reward of creative effort and the freedom of public access to culture and knowledge, have a defined limit. Copyright is no exception. The rights that the Copyright Act, 1957 confers upon authors, producers, performers and broadcasters are not permanent. They subsist for
Copyright Duration – Rules for Different Categories of Works under Indian Law Read More »
The question of whether a collection of information facts, data, references, records or other pre-existing material assembled into an organised whole deserves intellectual property protection is among the most contested and practically consequential in copyright law. At its core, it forces a direct confrontation with the foundational tension between two equally legitimate values: the interest
Copyright in Databases and Compilations under Indian Law Read More »
Few questions in contemporary intellectual property law have generated as much urgency, as much disagreement and as much genuine legal uncertainty as the question of who if anyone owns the copyright in a work generated by artificial intelligence. The question is not merely academic. Generative AI systems now produce novels, compose music, paint images, write
Copyright and Artificial Intelligence – Who Owns AI-Generated Works? Read More »
Chapter VIII of The Copyright Act, 1957 i.e. rights of broadcasting organisation and of performers in section 37 deals with Broadcast reproduction right and in section 38 with Performer’s right. The Copyright Act, 1957 is principally understood as a statute that protects authors, composers, writers, painters and filmmakers who create original works Yet creative industries
Performer’s right and Broadcast reproduction right under The Copyright Act, 1957 Read More »
The administration of copyright in creative industries has never been a matter that individual rights holders can manage alone. A composer whose work is performed across thousands of radio stations, hotel lobbies, restaurants and streaming platforms simultaneously cannot possibly negotiate individual licences with each user, monitor unauthorised performances or collect royalties from each source. It
Copyright Societies in India : Statutory Architecture of Sections 33 to 36A Read More »
The protection of computer programs under intellectual property law is one of the most consequential and contested questions in the history of modern legal systems. Software drives virtually every sector of the contemporary economy – from financial systems and medical devices to communications infrastructure and consumer entertainment. The legal framework that governs who owns software,