A study of Copyright Law

1. INFRINGEMENT UNDER
COPYRIGHT LAW
©
P R E S E N T E D B Y :
A M I T S A B O O ( 3 6 ) A N A H I T A C H O K S E Y ( 1 0 )
R A H U L K U M A R ( 2 3 ) S H A L A K A P A T I L ( 3 3 )
S U M O N I K A M I S R A ( ) S U R B H I S A X E N A ( )

2. THE COPYRIGHT ACT, 1957
• The Copyright Act 1957 was the first post-independence copyright legislation in
India and the law has been amended 6 times since 1957.
• The most recent amendment was in the year 2012, through the Copyright
(Amendment) Act 2012.
• Copyright is a bundle of rights given by the law to the creators of literary,
dramatic, musical and artistic works and the producers of cinematograph films and
sound recordings.

3. DURATION OF COPYRIGHT PROTECTION
• Literary
• Dramatic
• Musical
• Artistic works
Lifetime of the author +
sixty years from the
beginning of the calendar
year next following the year
in which the author dies
• Anonymous and
pseudonymous works
• Posthumous work
• Cinematograph films
• Sound records
• Government
work
• Public
undertakings
• International
Agencies
• photographs
Until sixty years from the
beginning of the calendar
years next following the year
in which the work is first
published

4. RIGHTS UNDER COPYRIGHT LAW
Copyright is the soul of Film, Audio-visual recording, Literature in Book
forms and Computer Software Industry.
The author of a copyrighted work enjoys the following exclusive
economic rights:
• Right to reproduce
• Right to publish
• To adapt and translate
• To communicate/perform in public
• To assign, license or bequeath the copyright to another party

5. AMENDMENTS TO COPYRIGHT LAW
• The changes will entitle authors of musical, cinematographic and literary
works to ROYALTY if their work is used for commercial purposes such as
ring tones, internet downloads or aired on radio channels.
• At present, a lyricist or music composer is paid on a one-time basis.
• They do not get royalty if their work is used in any form in future or from
re-runs of movies on television.

6. INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT LAW
• Copyright infringement occurs when any person does any of the
mentioned rights and activities with respect to a copyrighted work
WITHOUT A LICENSE.
• It leads to economic loss to the owners of copyright. Besides economic
loss, it also adversely affects creativity
• PIRACY: The term "piracy" has been used to refer to the unauthorized
copying, distribution and selling of works in copyright
• Infringement relevant in today’s world of Internet: Plagiarizing Marketing
Copy, Plagiarizing Personal Literature, Newspaper Infringement, Mashup
Copyright Issues, Photography Infringement

7. REMEDIES AGAINST COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT
The act provides 3 kinds of remedies :
• Administrative : include detention of the infringing goods by the
customs authorities
• Civil : Provided under Chapter XII of the Copyright Act 1957 and
include injunctions, damages and account of profits
• Criminal : Provided under Chapter XIII of the statute and the remedies
provided against copyright infringement include imprisonment (up to 3
years) along with a fine (up to 200,000 Rupees)

8. T H E C O U N T R Y ' S F I L M
I N D U S T R Y C O N T I N U E S T O
L O S E A R O U N D R S 5 0 B I L L I O N
I N R E V E N U E S A N D O V E R
5 0 , 0 0 0 J O B S E V E R Y Y E A R
D U E T O P I R A C Y . I N D I A I S
O N E O F T H E T O P C O U N T R I E S
W I T N E S S I N G P E E R - T O - P E E R
F I L E - S H A R I N G
I N F R I N G E M E N T W O R L D W I D E
S T O P P I R A C Y ! !

9. CASE 1

10. T-SERIES VS GURUJI.COM
• T- series is a top music label company and Guruji.com is
an indigenously made music search engine founded by
two IIT graduates in 2006
• Guruji.com slowly gained popularity as pirated music
search engine, it didn’t hold any pirated music but it
promoted pirated music through its homepage search
results
• 2008 T-series issued notice to Guruji.com

11. T-SERIES VS GURUJI.COM
T-series Guruji.com
Accused defendant for offering meta-
data instead merely displaying links
Responded that it has done what a
search engine is supposed to do and
is not hosting copyrighted content
Also stated defendant have an ad
program where ads on serious
offenders in music piracy like
songs.pk etc are dislayed who paid
Guruji
Tried to prove that they only pointed
consumers towards content
As the servers and office were in India
hence Copyright Act 1957 was rightly
applicable in this case
Showed their disclaimer
Guruji.com
disclaimer

12. T-SERIES VS GURUJI.COM
• Where did the defendant go wrong? They didn’t
maintain anonymity, other music piracy websites have
servers outside India/ outside Indian’s court purview
• THE JUDGEMENT
• Defendant removed search links for music from its site
• Shut down music search site in 2011
• Arrest of Anurag Dod, CEO of Guruji.com
• Seizure of servers, storage media and other equipment
• Arrest of employees of Guruji.com

13. BRIGHT TUNES MUSIC V. HARRISONGS MUSIC
Complaining Work
"He's So Fine"
Defending Work
"My Sweet Lord"
• This case found the late George Harrison liable for copyright infringement.
• Harrison's use of the melodic kernels of plaintiff‘s, in the same order and repetitive
sequence and set to "identical harmonies,“ as that of "He's So Fine“ composed by Ronald
Mack
• This is an action in which it is claimed that a successful song, My Sweet Lord, listing George
Harrison as the composer, is plagiarized from an earlier successful song, He's So Fine,
composed by Ronald Mack, recorded by a singing group called the "Chiffons," the
copyright of which is owned by plaintiff, Bright Tunes Music Corp.
• With liability established, the court then recommended an amount for the damages to be
paid by Harrison and Apple to Bright Tunes, which Owen totalled at $1,599,987– amounting
to three-quarters of the royalty revenue raised in North America from "My Sweet Lord"

14. REFERENCE
• https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/201
3/02/18/5-types-of-infringement-
made-commonplace-by-the-web/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyrigh
t_infringement