COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IN INDIA

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COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT AND PROVISIONS UNDER THE COPYRIGHT ACT, 1957

Copyright is an exclusive legal right granted to the creator/author or a group of individuals to protect their work or creativity from unauthorized reproduction, adaptation, translation, distribution, or public performance by others without the creator’s or person responsible for the work’s existence’s prior permission.

The objective of copyright is to protect and reward the general advantages, i.e. the authors’ labor on the final product. It motivates authors to continue producing and completing new works on a regular basis. Infringement is a deceptively simple description that masks a complicated legal reality. Determining infringement is treacherously difficult. However, the definition of infringing copy under Section 2(m) of the Act gives certain guidelines and criteria for determining whether or not an infringement has occurred.

To get protection from the copyright law the work should possess the following;

  1. The work must be original (originality refers to the fact that the work was generated from scratch rather than being duplicated from other sources). The job has to be made for the first time.)
  2. It must be fixed in any tangible form The work must be presented in an expressible and physical form that can be identified in a fixed form/identified in its existence or tangible form, such as paper, recordings on optical media, paintings, documents, web servers, and so on.
  3. It has to be the first publication. – A work that is unique should not be published.
  4. If a work is published after the author’s death, the author must have been a citizen of India at the time of his or her death.
  5. In case, work published out of India, at that time author must be citizen of India

Infringement of Copyright

Infringement of copyright occurs when someone violates a copyright law without first obtaining a licence or permission from the creator of the work. Copyright law gives an author exclusive legal rights to receive all kinds of advantages from his work. Using any copyrighted work without the permission of a copyright owner is an infringement of copyright law, according to Section 51 of Chapter XI of the Indian copyright act of 1957, and the following cases could be deemed infringements of copyright. Any person who infringes on a copyright is fully liable for his or her actions.

  1. Performing in public without the owner’s permission.
  2. Using copyrighted work for any type of enterprise that generates revenue.
  3. Importing or distributing for the purpose of trade.
  4. Reproduction in any tangible form of a substantial portion of a copyrighted work.
  5. Moving about among illegal people.
  6. Unauthorized adoption or translation of a copyrighted work.
  7. Copyrighted material is resold or rented to others.

Common reasons for copyright Infringement

  • Cost of Material
  • Unavailability of resources (Out of print/stock)
  • Unavailability of sufficient quantity or copies.
  • Misconception of what Fair use and Fait dealing is or isn’t.
  • The Copyright Provisions are not clearly understood.
  • Apathy towards others intellectual property

The Indian Position on Fair Use and Parody

In India, the fair use defence is outlined in Section 52 of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957, which states, among other things, that a fair dealing with a literary work for the purpose of criticism or review, whether of that work or any other work, does not constitute copyright infringement.

In M/s. Blackwood & Sons Ltd. v. A.N. Parasuraman, it was held that in order to constitute a fair dealing, the alleged infringer must not have intended to compete with the copyright holder of the work and to profit from such competition, and the alleged infringer’s motive in dealing with the work must not be improper.

To be eligible for the fair use defense in India, a parodist must meet two requirements:

  1. He/she must not intend to compete with the copyright holder and
  2. He/she must not make improper use of the original.

The first requirement, which is essentially the market substitution test, is easily demonstrated, because most parodies do not attempt to compete with the original, but rather mock or critique it in a way that exposes its shortcomings. As far as the second condition is concerned, it is doubtful as to what is meant by improper use and whether a parody is an instance of such use. In order to answer this question, reference may be made to the Kerala High Court judgment in Civic Chandran v. Ammini Amma (referred to as Civic Chandran).

SOME RECENT INSTANCES OF COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IN 2021

  1. Sony Pictures Network India Pvt. Ltd. v. www.sportsala.tv And Ors.

In this case, SONY PICTURES filed a lawsuit against a number of defendants, requesting a permanent injunction prohibiting the reproduction, distribution, broadcasting, and other uses of the cricket matches between India’s tours of England and Sri Lanka. During the course of the lawsuit, Sony Pictures filed a motion for an interim injunction, asking for similar relief. The court ruled in favour of SONY PICTURES and issued an injunction against websites, including redirects, mirrors, and alpha-numeric versions.

A dynamic injunction was also granted against rogue websites, which may reproduce, broadcast, make available, communicate to public or distribute the cricket matches. The Court also passed an order asking ISPs to block the mentioned and other rogue websites, and asked Government of India to give appropriate directions to prevent infringement of copyrights of Sony Pictures in the matches. The interim injunction also covered MSOs and cable operators, and local commissioners were appointed to monitor and act against violations of the Court’s orders. The Court’s orders primarily cover the copyrights held by Sony Pictures, and by implication permits non-infringing uses and fair uses of the content pertaining to the cricket matches between India and England/Sri Lanka.

2. Dassault System Solidworks Corporation & Anr. v. Spartan Engineering Industries Pvt. Ltd. Anr.

The Delhi High Court addressed the problem of software copyright infringement in this case. Plaintiff No. 1 is a French company that created the programme ‘Solidworks.’ This programme makes it easier to model and build goods in a three-dimensional environment. Plaintiff no.2 is a sister company set up by Plaintiff no.1 to handle all of Plaintiff no.1’s business in India, including “Solidworks.”

Plaintiffs No. 1 and 2 (“Plaintiffs”) claim that the software was developed as work for hire by their employees, and that the Plaintiffs own the copyright to it. The Plaintiffs argue that the software programme and its accompanying instruction manuals are literary works protected by the Copyright Act of 1957 (Act).

The software was first published in the United States of America (US), and it is protected in India under Section 40 of the Copyright Act because both India and the US are signatories to the Berne Convention, the Universal Copyright Convention, and the TRIPS Agreement of the World Trade Organization.

The Plaintiffs claim that they acquired information in May 2018 about the Defendants’ commercial usage of pirated and unlicensed versions of the ‘Solidworks’ software programme without paying the requisite licence cost. The Plaintiffs further claimed that unauthorised use of the software had escalated since August of 2020, and that all attempts to find an amicable conclusion had been ineffective because the Defendants denied infringement. Following this, the Plaintiffs sought an injunction from the Court, claiming that any use of a pirated or unauthorised copy of the Plaintiffs’ software programme would be considered copyright infringement under Section 51 of the Copyright Act.

The Plaintiffs also used Section 63B of the Act, which makes it illegal to use a pirated computer programme intentionally. Furthermore, the Plaintiffs claimed that the Defendants’ violation of the End User License Agreement resulted in contractual infringement and intellectual property infringement. “Software infringement is a serious issue that deserves to be addressed in the bud,” the court said in granting the decision. The Court granted the Plaintiffs an ad interim ex-parte injunction, restraining the Defendants from using, reproducing and distributing any pirated or unlicensed or unauthorized software programs owned by the Plaintiffs and also from formatting their computer systems and/or erasing any data, pertaining to assisting others to infringe the Plaintiffs’ copyright.


Even if there are numerous copyright limits and issues, a thorough understanding of copyright law and fair use deals will enable us to safely utilise copyrighted content for academic and research purposes. Before/during the procurement/subscription of any materials, a sufficient level of understanding of copy right issues must be envisaged. At this stage, an agreement/contract/terms and conditions on resource procurement between interested parties would play a critical role in protecting copyright holders. As a facilitator the librarian regularly needs to educate his users about copyright issues. And this could become one of the important factors that would play a major role in decline in copyright violations among library users. As per the Indian copyright act 1957 it is very clear that neither the publisher nor the facilitator is responsible for any infringement of copyrighted material, but a person who is involved in the activity of infringement is solely held responsible for his act of misconduct.