Frequently Asked Questions On Copyright Laws

QUERY #1

Who will have the copyright in the case of a book, the author or the publishing company?

ANSWER:

Laws and regulations related to copyright in India are contained in the Copyright Act, 1957. It defines copyright as the exclusive right to do or authorise to do actions like reproducing, copying, translating, performing, etc., of any original literary, musical, artistic, and dramatic works.

Chapter IV of the Copyright Act pertains to the ownership of a copyright and the rights of this owner. Section 17 of the same explains who can be the first owner of a copyright. It states that the first owner of a copyright shall be the author of the work, where author in the case of literary works is defined in the Copyright Act in section 2(d)(i) as the writer or author of that work.

Section 17(a) also provides an exception to this rule, stating that if the author created said work during the course of his employment by the proprietor for a publishing company under any such contract of service or apprenticeship, and for the purpose of publishing said work in a newspaper, magazine, or any other such publications, unless any agreement exists to specifically give the ownership of the work to the author, the first ownership of the copyright shall be given to the proprietor.

Therefore, the first ownership of the copyright of a literary work shall go to the author of that work unless they work for some proprietor under whose employment and for the purpose of publishing said work by the proprietor was this work created, provided an agreement to give the first copyright ownership to the author of the work was not previously made.

I hope this helps. Thank you for your time and patience!

QUERY #2

A novel written by an author who is no more is to be made a film. The copyrights for the same are with the author's sons. Since the producer wants the copyrights for the same, can it be done through an agreement of assignment between the producer and the sons?

ANSWER:

Copyright laws in India are governed by the Copyright Act, 1957. The same act also gives the rules regarding the assignment of a copyright in its sections 18 to 19. The same states that the owner of the copyright in an existing or prospective work holds the right to assign this copyright to some third party, either partially or wholly, and with or without any limitations, and either for the whole term of the copyright or for some part of that term, as specified. It also mandates that this assignment of the copyright to another party must be made in writing, and signed by the assignor or his authorised agent, to be valid.

If the assignee does not exercise the rights conferred to them through this assignment within a span of one year from the date of assignment, the rights conferred to him shall be considered to have lapsed, unless otherwise specified in the assignment.

Therefore, the assignor (The sons of the author) may through a written assignment deed confer copyrights to the Producer, and said assignment must be duly signed by the assignor.

I hope this helps. Thank you for your time and patience!

QUERY #3

As a music composer in India, I have the following doubts:

1) How to copyright music in India?

2) What parts of a song can be copyrighted? Can the song be copyrighted as a whole or is the music and lyrics copyrighted separately?

3) If someone steals my music and adds new lyrics to them, can this be considered a new song?

ANSWER:

Copyright laws and regulations in India are contained in the Copyright Act, 1957. The same defines copyright to be the exclusive rights to do or authorise to do things like copying, translating, reproducing, performing, etc., of a literary, dramatic, artistic or musical work. 

For the first question, the Copyright Act describes the process of copyrighting a work in India. According to the Copyright Act, a Copyright Office is established under this Act, which comes under the immediate control of the Registrar of Copyrights.

A register is to be kept at this Copyright Office and it shall contain information such as the title of the work, names and addresses of authors, publishers, and the owners of the copyright and other details as prescribed.

An application has to be made, along with the payment of a fee, by the author, publisher, owner, or any person who wants to copyright a work, for the purpose of entering the particulars of the work in the Register of Copyrights. After such an application is received by the Registrar of Copyrights, he may conduct an inquiry as he may deem fit, before entering the particulars in the Register of Copyrights. This Registrar of Copyrights is appointed by the Central Government.

For the second question, it must be understood that unless one person writes, composes and sings the whole song, he cannot claim copyright over the entire song. This is because a song is not treated as a single piece of work in the Copyright Act, 1957. Composing, writing, and singing the song are treated as different parts and therefore the copyright laws for the same also differ.

COMPOSER

For a music composer, section 2(p) of the Act is important as the same defines a musical work to include any graphical notation of the work but cannot include any words or any action intended to be sung, spoken or performed with the music. A composer is thus the author of this music and may obtain copyright over this music but not on the lyrics.

LYRICIST

The lyrics of a song come under literary work, and therefore the person who writes the lyrics is the author of the same and shall therefore be the first owner of the copyright of the same unless the exceptions mentioned in section 17(a) apply.

SINGER

The person who sings the song comes under the definition of a ‘performer’ as per the section 2(qq) of the same Act. He therefore has the “performer’s right” over this work, meaning he has the right over the visual or sound recording of his performance, and can choose to sell it, convert it into a digital form, issue copies of it to the public, etc. These rights mentioned in section 38 and 38A, shall subsist until fifty years from the date of his performance.

Also, the producer can be the author if said work pertains to a cinematograph film or sound recording.

If someone steals the music you have composed and copyrighted, and uses it to create another song by way of adding new lyrics to it, it shall amount to an infringement of the copyright of the music. Sections 55 and 63 of the Copyright Act discusses the available remedies in a case of copyright infringement. It can range from an injunction, damages, etc., to imprisonment for a term upto three years but not less than six months, along with a fine not less than 50,000 but can be extended upto two lakhs.

I hope this helps. Thank you for your time and patience!

QUERY #4

I have created a new card game which I intend to launch as a purchasable product. Should I seek a copyright or patent for it? Please note that it is a physical card game.

ANSWER:

A copyright is defined as the exclusive rights to do or authorise someone to do actions like reproducing, copying, translating, performing, etc., of any literary, dramatic, musical, or artistic work, or any computer programme, as per the Copyright Act, 1957. 

As evident from the above definition, a physical card game cannot be copyrighted as copyrights can only be awarded to those works which are created and intended to be an expression of an artistic idea or thought of an individual. You may choose to copyright any literary or artistic content related with the card game, but not the card game itself.

Patent laws in India are covered in the Patents Act, 1970. Section 2(j) of the same deals with the definition of an invention, and as per the same, an invention is any new product or a process that involves an inventive step and is capable of industrial application.

Therefore the new card game may be patented, provided the new card game is not a mere duplication of some other card game, and is actually a ‘new product’.

I hope this helps. Thank you for your time and patience!