AN OVERVIEW – COPYRIGHT LAW
INTRODUCTION
Copyright is a legal term refers to protecting a creator’s work. It is a type of intellectual property that provides exclusive publication, distribution, and usage rights for the creator. This means whatever content is created cannot be used or published by anyone else without the consent of the creator. The length of copyright protection may differ from country to country, but it usually lasts for the life of the author plus 50 to 100 years. Copyright is generally given by the law to creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works and producers of cinematograph films and sound recordings. It is a pack of rights including, inter alia, rights of reproduction, communication to the public, adaptation and translation of the work. In modern times, copyright protection has been extended to websites and other online content. This is important in the digital age, since large amounts of content can be easily copied.
In many countries, copyright shield is automatic. Whenever you publish original content, it is automatically protected by copyright law. If you want others to know your content is copyright protected, you can post the copyright logo (©) on any Web pages that include your unique content. You may also want to include the years you have owned the content. e.g. Copyright © 2007-2009 [your name]. Many countries provide copyright registration, which allows authors to register copyrighted content with a government agency. This makes it easy to establish ownership of content if it is ever uncertain.
COPYRIGHT & TECHNICAL TERMS
Ø Work – A work refers to any of the following, namely, a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, a cinematograph film, or a sound recording.
Ø Artistic Work – An artistic work means a painting, a carving, a drawing (including a diagram, map, chart or plan), an engraving or a photograph, whether or not any such work possesses artistic quality, a work of architecture and any other work of artistic craftsmanship.
Ø Musical Work – Musical work means a work consisting of music and includes any graphical notation of such work but does not include any words or any action intended to be sung, spoken or performed with the music. A musical work need not be written down to enjoy copyright security.
Ø Sound Recording – Sound recording means a recording of sounds from which sounds may be produced regardless of the medium on which such recording is made or the method by which the sounds are produced. A phonogram and a CD-ROM are sound recordings.
Ø Cinematograph Film – Cinematograph film means any work of visual recording on any medium produced through a process from which a moving image may be produced by any means and includes a sound recording accompanying such visual recording and cinematograph shall be construed as including any work produced by any procedure analogous to cinematography including video films.
Ø Government Work – Government work means a work which is published by or under the direction or control of the government or any department of the government, any legislature in India, and any court, tribunal or other judicial authority in India.
Ø Indian work – Indian work means a literary, dramatic or musical work, the author of which is a citizen of India or which is first published in India or the author of which, in the case of an unpublished work is, at the time of the making of the work, a citizen of India.
Ø Author – In the case of a literary or dramatic work the author, i.e., the person who creates the work. In the case of a musical work, the composer. In the case of a cinematograph film, the producer. In the case of a sound recording, the producer. In the case of a photograph, the photographer. In the case of a computer generated work, the person who causes the work to be created.
Ø Adaptation – Adaptation involves the preparation of a new work in the same or different form based upon an already existing work. The Copyright Act defines the following acts as adaptations,
1. Conversion of a dramatic work into a non dramatic work
2. Conversion of a literary or artistic work into a dramatic work
3. Re-arrangement of a literary or dramatic work
4. Depiction in a comic form or through pictures of a literary or dramatic work
5. Transcription of a musical work or any act involving re-arrangement or alteration of an existing work.
The making of a cinematograph film of a literary or dramatic or musical work is also an adaptation.
Ø Performer – As per the Indian Copyright Act, a Performer includes an actor, singer, musician, dancer, acrobat, juggler, conjurer, snake charmer, a person delivering a lecture or any other person who makes a performance.
Ø Performance – Performance in relation to performer’s right, means any visual or acoustic presentation made live by one or more performers.
Ø Broadcast – Broadcast means communication to the public by any means of wireless diffusion, whether in any one or more of the forms of signs, sounds or visual images or by wire.
Ø Copyright Society – A copyright society is a registered collective administration society. Such a society is formed by copyright owners. The minimum membership required for registration of a society is seven. Ordinarily, only one society is registered to do business in respect of the same class of work. A copyright society can issue or grant licenses in respect of any work in which copyright subsists or in respect of any other right given by the Copyright Act.
COPYRIGHT REGISTRATION PROCESS
- FILING APPLICATION
Copyright application should be made in Form IV along with “Statement of Particulars and Statement of Further Particulars”. The application should also have the payment of the prescribed fee at Copyright Office of the Department of Education. The Copyright Office initially provides a filing number and filing date and issues a filing receipt. Thereafter the application is formally examined by the office. Defects will be communicated to the applicant. Once the application is found to be in order it is accepted and the Copyright Office issues the registration certificate. It may take 3-4 months time for registration of any work in the normal course. Trovare clienti