COPYRIGHT PROTECTION VIS--VIS ACCESSIBILITY OF COPYRIGHTED
WORKS: THE ROLE OF LIBRARIES IN DIGITAL ERA
COPYRIGHT PROTECTION VIS--VIS ACCESSIBILITY OF COPYRIGHTED
WORKS: THE ROLE OF LIBRARIES IN DIGITAL ERABy
DR. DEVIDAS G. MALEYLL.M., M. Phil., Ph.D.ASSISTANT
PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDEIS & RESEARCH IN
LAWGULBARGA UNIVERSITY, GULBARGA -585 106Phone: (Office)
08472-263287Mobile 9845737713; E-mail [email protected]
Economic Benefits of CopyrightsA Suitable BoyA novel written by
Vikram SethPublished by Wiking Penguin BooksEarns Rs. 5 crore
royalty The Penguin requests to Vikram Seth to write another novel
which is opposite to it entitled Suitable Girl by giving Rs. 10
crore in advanceA Suitable Boy is a novel by Vikram Seth, published
in 1993. At 1349 pages and 591,552 words, the book is one of the
longest novels ever published in a single volume in the English
language.WikipediaOriginally published:May 1993Author:Vikram
SethFollowed by:A Suitable Girl
INTRODUCTIONHuman being is a rational and creative animal. Only
human beings are capable of higher creativity. This creativity
results in inventions, discoveries, literature, music compositions,
dramatic works, paintings, cinematograph film, sound recording etc.
All most all the civilized countries are recognized the works of
creative by conferring certain rights on the person who creates
these works called the intellectual property rights (IPRs). The
IPRs consists of various kinds such as patents, trademarks, designs
and copyright etc are in the nature of exclusive and monopoly
rights. At the same IPRs especially the copyright helps in
economic, educational and cultural development of the nation.
Copyright is a barrier to access to copyright protected works for a
limited period.Though the Copyright Laws of majority countries of
the world provide exceptions to violations of copyright under
certain circumstances which enables the users of the sources and
materials under exceptional circumstances set out in the law of
each nation. However, the widespread violations of copyrights is
the hallmark of digital ear as it facilitated to copy easily even
the copyright protected materials also.
INTRODUCTIONThe digital era posing a high degree of threat to
protection of copyright as it help lot in accessing the source even
copyrighted material in an easy manner.Consequently, the copyright
owners are sustaining economic loss.This is further accelerated by
the libraries wherefrom the works can be physically and digitally
copied.This paper attempts to examine the role of libraries in
providing access to the sources at the same time by respecting the
copyright regulations.IntroductionThe concept of copyright is
essentially a product of modern civilization. In ancient days,
works of art and literature were created mainly to achieve name and
fame. Copyright is a unique kind of intellectual property right
(IPR). In fact, copyright was the first intellectual property,
which received legal protection in the world. Copyright law
protects the expression of an idea rather than the underlying idea
itself. The subject matter of copyright is literary, artistic,
dramatic, musical works etc. All such works are protected as long
as there is an original expression of an idea. The idea and
expression dichotomy enables others to express the same or similar
idea with different expression or similar expression without
copying or imitating and receive copyright protection as long as
the expression satisfies the test of originality.
PRESENTATION COVERSIntroductionMeaning and definition of
Copyrightobject of Legal protection of copyrightRIGHTS CONFERRED ON
OWNESR OF THE COPYRIGHT TERM OF COPYRIGHT PROTECTIONVIOLATION OR
INFRINGMENT OF copyrightexceptions or limitations TO INFRINGMENT OF
COPYRIGHTcopyright and role of library in sharing knowledge and
information in digital eraCONCLUSION
ISSUES RAISEDWhether copyright encourages the creativity?Whether
copyright kills the creativity?Whether the digital era marking for
death of copyright law?Whether we are killing the copyright
law?Meaning and definition of CopyrightCopyright is a right
recognized by the law to creators of literary, dramatic, musical
and artistic works and producers of cinematograph films and sound
recordings. In fact, it gives bundle of rights including,inter
alia,rights of reproduction, communication to the public,
adaptation and translation of the work. Copyright derived from the
expression of Copie of words first used in 1586. The word copy
alone probably dates from circa 1485 and was used to connote a
manuscript or other matter prepared for printing. The Oxford
English Dictionary defines Copyright as the exclusive right given
by law for a certain term of years to an author, composer etc. (or
his assignee) to print, publish and sell copies of his original
work. Chambers Encyclopaedia defines copyright in its most
elementary form as the exclusive right to multiply copies of a
book. The Colliers Encyclopaedia defines as a privilege or
franchise granted by the Government to authors, composers and
artists ..which entitles them to the exclusive right of printing or
otherwise multiplying, publishing and vending copies of the
copyrighted literary or artistic production.The Statutory
Definition of the CopyrightThe statutory definition of the
copyright defined in Section 14 of the Copyright Act, 1957:
copyright means the exclusive right to do or authorize others to do
certain acts in relation to: literary, dramatic or musical works,
not being a computer programme, computer programme, artistic work,
cinematographic film and sound recording.
The nature of the acts varies according to the subject
matter.Basically copyright means the right to copy or reproduce the
work in which copyright subsists. Apart from these works the
Copyright Act, 1957 extends its protection to performers rights and
broadcasting reproduction rights as allied rights to the
copyrights. object of Legal protection of copyrightThe object of
copyright law is to encourage authors, composers and artists to
create more and more original works by rewarding them with the
exclusive right to enjoy monetary advantages for limited period for
the benefit of the public. On the expiry of the term of copyright,
the works falls into the public domain and anyone may reproduce
them without permission of the author or owner.Chinnappa Reddy, J.
in Gramophone Co. v. Birender Bahadur Pandey, AIR 1984 SC 667 at
p.676 stated about the rationale and objective of protection of
copyright, he said: An artistic, literary or musical work is the
brainchild of the author, the fruit of his labour and so,
considered to be his property. So highly is it prized by all
civilized nations that it is thought worthy of protection by
national laws and international conventions.TERM OF COPYRIGHT
PROTECTIONCopyright basically a limited right in terms of its
protection. The term and duration for which the copyrights are
protected is varies according to the nature of the work. Term of
copyright is provided under Sections 22 29 of the Copyright Act,
1957. The term is shown in the following table.Sl.
No.WorksTerm1Literary, dramatic, musical or artistic60 pma* (Life +
60 Years)2Photograph60 years3Cinematograph film60 years4Sound
recording60 years5Government work60 years6Works of public
undertaking60 years7Works of international organizations60
years8Performers right50 years9Broadcast reproduction rights25
yearsVIOLATION OR INFRINGMENT OF copyrightSection 51 provides for
when copyright infringed. - Copyright in a work shall be deemed to
be infringed- when any person, without a license granted by the
owner of the copyright or the Registrar of Copyrights under this
Act or in contravention of the conditions of a license so granted
or of any condition imposed by a competent authority under this
Act- does anything, the exclusive right to do which is by this Act
conferred upon the owner of the copyright, or permits for profit
any place to be used for the communication of the work to the
public where such communication constitutes an infringement of the
copyright in the work, unless he was not aware and had no
reasonable ground for believing that such communication to the
public would be an infringement of copyright; or when any person-
makes for sale or hire, or sells or lets for hire, or by way of
trade displays or offers for sale or hire, or distributes either
for the purpose of trade or to such an extent as to affect
prejudicially the owner of the copyright, or by way of trade
exhibits in public, orimports into India, any infringing copies of
the work: Provided that nothing in sub-clause shall apply to the
import of one copy of any work for the private and domestic use of
the importer. Explanation.- For the purposes of this section, the
reproduction of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work in
the form of a cinematograph film shall be deemed to be an
"infringing copy".
exceptions or limitations TO INFRINGMENT OF COPYRIGHTAll
civilized countries have provided certain exceptions or limitations
on copyright protection whereby facilitated to make use of the work
protected by copyright without being facing the liabilities for
violations within such limitations.This system is a necessary
mechanism whereby the people are allowed to use the works for
genuine purposes called as fair use doctrine or fair dealing
doctrine. W. R. Cornish lists fair dealing circumstance are as
Research and Private Study, Reporting current Events, Criticism and
review.The same has been adopted at the international as well as
national level legal systems. Section 52 of Copyright Act, 1957
gives a long list of such exceptional circumstance under which the
violation of copyright cannot be alleged.
copyright & role of library in sharing knowledge and
information in digital eraLibraries are the temples of learners
where the books, encyclopedias, journals, magazines and other
reading materials in physical and digital are kept for users to
read and get knowledge and information from such materials either
for free or on fee. As gateways to knowledge and culture, libraries
play a fundamental role in society. The resources and services they
offer create opportunities for learning, support literacy and
education, and help shape the new ideas and perspectives that are
central to a creative and innovative society. They also help ensure
an authentic record of knowledge created and accumulated by past
generations. In a world without libraries, it would be difficult to
advance research and human knowledge or preserve the worlds
cumulative knowledge and heritage for future generations.copyright
and role of library in sharing knowledge and information in digital
eraLibraries are keenly aware of the need to maintain the balance
between protecting the rights of authors and safeguarding the wider
public interest.Copyright exceptions, which are currently under
discussion in WIPOs Standing Committee on Copyright and Related
Rights (SCCR), form an integral part of national copyright systems.
They play an essential role in enabling the delivery of library
services to the public and in achieving the copyright systems goals
of encouraging creativity and learning. Libraries represent
different things to different people from a place where mothers can
take toddlers to read their first stories and students can study,
to a service allowing anyone to borrow a book, access the Internet
or do research. Quite simply, libraries offer a means by which we
can gain access to knowledgecopyright and role of library in
sharing knowledge and information in digital eraCopyright is an
obstacle for sharing the knowledge and information. However, taking
of material or making copy of the copyright protected material is
prohibited by the copyright law in general. Under certain
circumstances they are permitted especially the libraries are
permitted to make copies of the work protected by the copyright law
for its users in India. The said circumstances are as follows:
copyright and role of library in sharing knowledge and
information in digital erathe storing of a work in any medium by
electronic means by a non-commercial public library, for
preservation if the library already possesses a non-digital copy of
the work.the making of not more than three copies of a book
(including a pamphlet, sheet of music, map, chart or plan) by or
under the direction of the person in charge of a non-commercial
public library for the use of the library if such book is not
available for sale in India.the reproduction, for the purpose of
research or private study or with a view to publication, of an
unpublished literary, dramatic or musical work kept in a library,
museum or other institution to which the public has access.the
adaptation, reproduction, issue of copies or communication to the
public of any work in any accessible format, by- any person to
facilitate persons with disability to access to works including
sharing with any person with disability of such accessible format
for private or personal use, educational purpose or research; or
any organization working for the benefit of the persons with
disabilities in case the normal format prevents the enjoyment of
such works by such persons: Provided that the copies of the works
in such accessible format are made available to the persons with
disabilities on a non-profit basis but to recover only the cost of
production: Provided further that the organization shall ensure
that the copies of works in such accessible format are used only by
persons with disabilities and takes reasonable steps to prevent its
entry into ordinary channels of business. Explanation.-For the
purposes of this sub-clause, "any organization" includes an
organization registered under section 12A of the Income-tax Act,
1961 and working for the benefit of persons with disability or
recognized under Chapter X of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal
Opportunities, Protection or Rights and full Participation) Act,
1995 or receiving grants from the government for facilitating
access to persons with disabilities or an educational institution
or library or archives recognized by the Government Section
52(1)(n) of the Copyright Act, 1957.CHALLENGES TO
COPYRIGHTCopyright owners have attempted to combat to the threats
of infringement in numerous ways. They have sued the providers and
users of online file sharing networks and developed technological
barriers to unauthorized copying. They have also lobbied
governments to strengthen legal protections.They have also
encouraged police and prosecutors to use criminal copyright law
more liberally. Infringement was generally considered a private,
economic wrong enforced by copyright owners pursuing private law
suits and remedied by injunctions, damages and other civil
remedies.Digitalization increases the quality of copyrighted
content and reduces the cost of delivering to consumers. Hence DRM
has vital importance in the digital era. The emergence of digital
technologies towards the concluding decades of the 20thcentury as
defining paradigms of new age communication raised a whole new set
of challenges to copyright regimes.CONCLUSIONThe Intellectual
Property (IP) especially the copyright law challenges confronting
libraries today raise a number of fundamental questions about the
role of copyright law in fostering innovation and creativity. The
library community believes that copyright law should continue to be
central to innovation policy. Libraries play a key role in
fostering literacy and learning, in creating the building blocks of
development, and in safeguarding the worlds cultural and scientific
heritage. We need to act swiftly to ensure libraries can continue
to deliver their services effectively, for the public good in all
countries. However, the libraries must and do respect the copyright
law keeping the interest of the authors and their economic rights
while making copies and sharing them with its users by which
creativity will be maintained and public will be benefitted in the
course of time. Libraries must adopt the striking balance between
the making accessibility of the works to its users and protection
of interest of owners of the copyright by this creativity can be
encouraged and in turn public will get benefitted of such creative
works into their domain after the expiry of the term of copyright
or can be utilized under exceptional circumstances or on licenses
basis at an earliest point of time.HONESTY MATTERSHonesty is the
best policyWe must come out with intellectual honesty we can
protect the intellectual property especially the copyright.Thou
shall not stealEconomic losses if copyright is not protectedSpeech
on Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill 2015 byMark
Dreyfuson June 17, 2015 says: Copyright law protects the rights of
all those who produce original artistic or intellectual work. The
very livelihoods of artists, authors, musicians, composers, writers
and performers depend upon it. I am the son of a composer; I know
very well the vital role of copyright laws in supporting the work
of creative people.Given how central copyright protections are to
supporting creative activity of all kinds, we should be deeply
concerned about the current level of online piracy. We should not
mince words about this: Australia has a very serious problem with
piracy. Available figures indicate that it is one of the worst in
the developed world. A lot of the public debate about this topic is
focused on popular foreign content, likeGame of Thrones. But when
Australian audiences pirate creative work it is Australian creative
industries which suffer disproportionately. It is the livelihood of
Australians employed in those industries which is threatened.
Market research indicates that movie piracy alone costs the
Australian economy $1.37 billion worth of sales, $193 million in
tax revenue and 6,100 FTE jobs each year. If the arts are to thrive
in Australiaif we are to be a Creative Nationthen we must have
appropriate copyright protections and the measures necessary to
enforce them. The current level of online piracy clearly
necessitates government action.
STUDY ON COPYRIGHT PIRACY IN INDIAMinistry of HRD, Government of
India, which is an apex body in the country in copyright matters,
initiated a comprehensive study to know the ground level realities
of the copyright piracy phenomenon in 2009. The study which is the
first of its kind was assigned to the National Productivity Council
with the following objectives :-Assessing the extent of copyright
piracy prevailing in various segments of the copyright industry
namely cinematographic works including video, sound recordings,
computer software, literary works and the performers.Assessing the
impact of piracy on copyright holder and the national
economy.Evolving a phased programme for tackling the situation by
improving the enforcement of the Copyright Act as well as to
promote schemes of awareness creation.STUDY ON COPYRIGHT PIRACY IN
INDIAThe economic importance of copyright had been amply
illustrated by a number of studies undertaken in the past in
various parts of the world, notably in USA, Germany, Australia,
U.K., Sweden and some other developed countries. For example, a
study conducted in 1993 for the U.S.A. showed that the core
copyright industries comprising motion picture, computer software,
music & recording and book publishing industries accounted for
$ 238.6 billion in value added to the US economy, which
approximately accounted for 3.47 % of the country's Gross Domestic
Product (GDP). These industries grew at more than twice the annual
growth rate of US economy as a whole between 1991 and 1993 (5.6% as
against 2.7% for the economy as a whole). The total copyright
industries taken together (i.e. core industries plus those
distribute copyrighted products and other products those depend on
wholly or principally on copyrighted materials) employed more than
5.7 million workers (about 4.8% of total U.S. workforce) and
accounted for approximately 5.69% US GDP in 1993.STUDY ON COPYRIGHT
PIRACY IN INDIAIn India, no estimates are available to ascertain
contribution of copyright based industries to the national economy.
However, given the rich cultural background and huge population of
the country, it is believed that copyright industries collectively
contribute enormously to the economy. India is the largest audio
cassette market in the world in terms of number of units sold. In
1996, India sold more than 350 million audio cassettes & CDs
and the industry's sales turnover stood at Rs.105,605 million.
India's software industry is showing a phenomenal growth. During
1996-97, the software industry in India with its size of Rs.63,100
million achieved a remarkable growth rate of above 50% over its
previous year's performance.During the same period India could
export softwares worth Rs.39,000 million and the software industry
provided employment to more than 160,000 people.STUDY ON COPYRIGHT
PIRACY IN INDIAThe publishing industry is also quite large in the
country. About 11,000 publishers are engaged in producing more than
57,000 new titles every year, of which about 22% is published in
English language.In 1995-96 India exported Rs.1120 million worth of
books and other printed material. A sizeable portion of this (about
29.1 percent) went to advanced countries in the Europe. The print
media in India comprising daily newspapers and numerous other
periodicals e.g. weekly, monthly and annual journals/magazines is
huge. In 1997, it had a total circulation of 10,57,08,191 and the
turnover from print media is estimated to be as high as Rs. 8000
crores (table 2.1). The other core copyright industry namely film
and video, also occupies an important place in the country. Film is
considered as one of the best means of entertainment for the common
people. India annually produces more than 600 films in major
languages such as Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam & Kannada.
The demand for cable & satellite TVs are also on the rise. It
is estimated that during 1996 cable connection in the country had
reached about 20 million houses covering approximately 10 percent
of the total households in the country.Piracy Level in Literary
WorksDuring our survey we had enquired on book piracy from the
concerned target groups comprising publishers, booksellers and
reading community (end users). The responses received from these
categories are more than other forms of the Copyright Industry. 92
publishers, 141 booksellers and 123 readers responded to the
survey. The findings are also noteworthy. The perception of these
two different groups do not differ much. The piracy levels vary
between 15% to 24% during the period under consideration. About 33%
(30 out of 92) of the publishers are aware of some kind of
violation of copyright in their own works. 31% of the authorised
sellers (44 out of 141) also felt that their books are pirated.
Among buyers, 28% of the respondents (34 out of 123) admitted
buying pirated books. Of these, as high as 82% bought pirated books
knowingly. On an average an enduser found to buy a total of
37.Average Piracy Level in Literary WorksYearPiracy Level as
Perceived byPublishersPublishers Booksellers
1994-9515.0314.641995-9619.2318.371996-9720.7623.60Extent of
Photocopying by End UsersExtent of Photocopying (%)No. of Books
PhotocopiedNo. of Respondents100701950 - 7534725 - 507615Below
259527Total27568Trade LossBook piracy brings in losses to the
publishers and the authors in terms of reduced sales and
non-receipt of royalty respectively. But such losses could not be
known to the publishers or authors as they might not be knowing the
extent of piracy with respect to their works. This might be the
reason why only a few publishers could provide information on
losses. In 1996-97, while 30 publishers admitted about the
awareness on piracy of their respective works, only 5 could give
some estimate of losses. This is not surprising.At the aggregate
level we found earlier that the extent of book piracy in 1996-97 as
perceived by the publishers and booksellers are estimated to be
20.8 percent and 23.6 per cent respectively. During the same year,
the purchase behaviour of buyers reveal that at the endusers' level
piracy percentage stood at 19%. Thus book piracy rate in the
country is varying between a high of 24% (as perceived by the book
sellers) to a low of 19% (as revealed by the endusers). To arrive
at a single figure, if we take the average of these three figures,
the overall piracy percent in 1996-97 will be about 21%. Taking
this figure, the estimated loss suffered by the book publishing
industry in the country during 1996-97 is found to be about Rs.266
crores.Digital Publishing & PiracyThe rapid advances in the
field of information technology (IT) are affecting the society in
more than one way. The new technologies have brought in
considerable changes in almost all activities of human life be it
manufacturing, trade & business, art or culture. The publishing
industry is also no exception as we see the traditional printing
& publishing activities are fast giving way to electronic
publishing. Electronic publishing is a process where activities
relating to publication such as submission of manuscript,
formatting, editing, printing and even distribution are carried out
with the help of computers and telecommunication technologies. In
its simplest form electronic publishing describes a situation where
use of computers is confined to formatting, editing etc, but the
final output is produced in the conventional print forms. The
latest trend, however, is towards a paperless publication where the
entire flow of information from the author to the readers takes in
machine- readable forms. Technologically, electronic publishing is
taking two prominent forms viz. Optical Disk (popularly known as
CD-ROM) publishing and network publishing.Digital refers to
conversion of information in binary codes i.e. in the form of one
and zero, current on isone and current off is zero. In common
parlance digital publishing and electronic publishing are used
interchangeably though in the stricter sense of the terms these two
are not identical. All electronic publications need not be
digital.Digital representation affords much greater potential for
adding functionality and utility to a corpus of information. Once
information is digitally encoded, new tools and systems can be
invented to create altogether a new form of publication. One output
from the application of digital technology is 'multimedia' which is
the juxtaposition of text, picture, sound, video etc. in a single
medium.Advantages of Digital PublicationsElectronic publishing or
its digitized version has certain definite advantages over the
traditional print medium. The first and the foremost is the
facility to update a document almost instantaneously which enables
the readers to get the latest versions of publications. Electronic
publications allow easy search of documents and thus reduces users'
search time. Another advantage from the users' point of view is
that he/she need not buy an entire publication to access a part
information from it. Many electronic publications are on-line and
can be downloaded by an user as per his/her requirement. The new
technologies are advantageous for publishers as they, especially
the journal publishers, can drastically reduce their turn-around
time i.e. the time lag in submission, referring, revision, editing,
composing, printing, delivery etc by wide spread applications of
computers and communication networks. The digital conversion allows
media enhancement of existing materials with sound, animation and
video etc.Electronic publications are easy to store. Conventional
books take up substantial amount of shelf space, whereas a typical
CD of twelve centimeter diameter can store 650 MB of information
i.e. about 250,000 pages (of A4 size) of text. The digital
publishing is economical too.Advantages of Digital
PublicationsNetwork publishing is even more useful in terms of
information provision and usage. The internet which is the network
of networks is an enormous repository of information resources and
this is growing in size every day. The most striking feature of
internet is its easy accessibility. A vast world of information can
be accessed in the desktops with just the click of a button. While
this adds tremendous value to our activities, there are reasons for
publishers/ authors to be concerned about it as in a networked
environment like the internet copyright is under serious
threat.Advantages of Digital PublicationsFirstly, given the sheer
complexity of mixed media and interconnected rights in the digital
environment determining what rights exist and how they apply to a
publication under use is not an easy task.Therefore, the process of
determining copyrights, tracking them and ultimately facilitating
monetary compensation to the right holders for use of their works
remains very complicated. Then there is theissue of what is 'free'
and what is 'protected' in a vast sea of information that is
available in the net.This is not always clear to the internet
providers, the web users and sometimes even to the lawyers. As a
result, the fear for loss of income due to unauthorized use is more
in an electronic environmentcompared to the traditional publishing.
Besides economic rights, moral rights of authors are at a grave
risk of being violated by numerous users in a network.The issue is
far more complicated in case of multi-media work. Historically,
copyright law has been split between different media. For example,
text comes under literary works copyright , still images are
artistic work copyright and moving images fall within the
jurisdiction of cinematographic works copyright. I n multimedia,
all these are put together in a single product. Existence of a
number of copyrights with different owners and perhaps with
different terms of protection make a multimedia product an ideal
battle ground in the cause of copyright protection.
