Emerging Trends In Digital
Copyright Law In India
Authored By – Mrityunjay Joshi
(Student, Symbiosis Law School, NOIDA)
Introduction
The copyright law is regarded as the legacy of technology in historical chronicles. It has undergone methodological improvements to ensure the public interest in imagination, creativity and energy, taking into account the existence, scale and field of the technology involved. Its principal aim is to give the writers and creators of various works of copyright, first, adequate rewards and, secondly, to allow them to be available to the public. The copyright law had to change between the imperative of awarding the author and the appeal of publication. With the Internet’s ubiquity as an exceptional and completely new intermediary of the all-encompassing human contact world- wide, which has shrunk into the virtual digital village, copyright protection is both a serious concern to the lawyers and other stakeholders. The Internet and computer networks allow a growing number of people to engage in the production of collective knowledge, thereby weakening the efforts to promote original intellectual property owners.
Enactment of Law
In 1998 the Indian Government introduced the Digital Millennium Copyright Act,1 which revised copyright legislation to comply with emerging developments in digital technology. The world has acknowledged the need for a digital copyright law through the growth and advancement of technology and, more precisely, digitalization. The new copyright law was therefore established as there is a strong need to protect the trend of keeping digital records around the world.
Digital Technology and Copyright Issues
New challenges to the existing Copyright laws were raised by the technical change, when the law first evolved under the regime of print media, which advanced steadily in their protective works to include artistic works, drawings, designs, sculptures that subsequently also grew to photography and cinema. In order to make changes in digital culture, the old legislations had to be reintroduced and their main principles in copyright law. Digital data are easily accessible by the increased usage of the Internet by technical copiers or recorders, which could lead to a manipulation of labour in order to free the information flow of society, as the author loses all power at the moment of putting this digital record in the Internet’s public domain.
The latest Copyright (Amendment) Act 20122
A fair trade exception has been made for all forms of works, and for education which were historically only available in relation to those kinds of work, such as literature, dramatic and musical works The reporting on current affairs, including the reporting on a lecture given in public, was a fair dealing exception. The fair trade exemption was previously restricted to personal usage or private use, including study and whether of the work in question or some other work, critique or analysis. In addition, it was clarified that the storage, for the purposes specified in this section, of any works in any electronic medium, including the corresponding storage of any computer programme not an infringement of the copy, is not infringed. The transitional and usable storage of a work or output solely through the technical mechanism of electronic transmission or public communication. The transient and incidental storage, in order to provide electronic links, access or integration, of the work or presentation in which the holder of the rights is not specifically forbidden from such links, access or integration, unless the person responsible is aware or has fair cause to trust that such storage is of a violation of copy. Provided that the person responsible for storing a copy, on protests against which someone was prohibited, could request that the person file an order from the competent court within 14 days to prevent the storage of that copy. The collection, by non-commercial public library, of a work of any medium, for conservation if that library already has a non-digital copy of the work; the manufacture, for the purpose of industry, of any strictly functional piece of a useful device for a three-dimensional item based on a two- dimensional artistic work, for instance technical drawing. Copyright advancement was closely connected to technological development. While the majority of technology made protection of copyright challenging, the basic principles of copyright could be changed by digital computers.
1 Copyright Act 1976
2 The copyright Amendment Act 2012
These copyright competitions have arisen at the time of unparalleled levels of the exclusive rights in national financial prudence. In order for the latest technological innovations to adapt effectively and adequately to the speed and pace of such developments, it is important to change the legal system.
Conclusion
In this argument, it is important to remember that in the digital world, because of the lack of territorial boundaries, the needs of both developed and developing countries cannot be met. It is therefore advisable that a single rule should be a powerful Digital Rights Management framework in the world. All copyright owners worldwide will also be motivated, due to the vast scope and quality of digital technology, to do something on the Internet that would result in greater benefit. This will in turn provide strong economic incentives leading to increased use and production of useful arts. This will in turn provide strong economic incentives leading to increased use and production of useful arts. Consequently, to curb piracy to a great extent, it will operate through strict rules against the circumvention of Digital Rights Management systems. In turn, the government could guarantee the distribution of content by subsidising India with critical information and knowledge. It is cumbersome due to the indivisible existence of the Internet, depending on the country’s development status, with different laws.
References :-
- Jovana Letic, Piracy Statistics for 2020, Data Prot (Nov. 14, 2019)
- Oxford’s Dictionary
- R. Dhiraj, The Law of Copyright in India
- Lata Jha, India among top five countries for peer-driven piracy, Live Mint (Aug. 21, 2018, 12:31 PM)
- Juhi Saraswat & Rekha Chaturvedi, Copyright Protection in the Digital Environment: Indian Perspective and International Obligations, J. INTELLEC PROP RIGHTS 303, 304 (2017)
- Fareed Ahmad Rafiqui & Iftikhar Hussain Bhat, Copyright Protection in Digital Environment: Emerging Issues, I.J.H.S.S.I. 06, 11 (2013)
