The document summarizes copyright law in Sri Lanka. It discusses that copyright is governed by the Intellectual Property Act No. 36 of 2003. Copyright protects literary and artistic works and provides economic and moral rights to authors. Works are automatically protected upon creation without registration. Copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years. Fair use provisions allow limited use for purposes like research and education. Infringement of copyright is a criminal offense punishable by fines and imprisonment.

1. Chapter 4 - Intellectual
Property
IT 5105 – Professional Issues in IT
OpenArc Campus - BIT UCSC - Sem V 2016
Upekha Vandebona
upe.vand@gmail.com
Ref : [1] INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ACT, No. 36 OF 2003. [2] http://www.nipo.gov.lk [3] http://intellectualsl.com
[Sri Lanka & Copyrights]

2. International Dimensions
 The World Intellectual property organization
(WIPO), a specialized agency in the United
Nation’s System, is mandated to promote the
protection of Intellectual Property rights in all the
member states.
 WIPO administers 23 international conventions on
Intellectual property at present.

3. International Dimensions
 In addition, there are some other international
organizations, which administer certain areas of
Intellectual Property.
UNESCO (Universal Copyright Convention)
World Trade Organization (the Agreement on
Trade related aspects of Intellectual Property
rights - the TRIPS Agreement)
International Union for the protection of New
Varieties of Plants (International Convention for
the protection of New Varieties of Plants)

4. Sri Lanka Position
 Sri Lanka is a member of the following multi-
national Conventions.
Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial
Property.
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary
and Artistic Works.
Patent Cooperation Treaty
TRIPS Agreement

5. Sri Lanka Position
 The current Intellectual Property system in Sir
Lanka is governed by the Intellectual Property
Act No 36 of 2003 which makes provisions for a
variety of Intellectual Property rights and their
acquisition , management and enforcement.
 The National Intellectual Property Office (NIPO)
of Sri Lanka established under this law is the
government department, which is responsible for
the administration of the intellectual Property
System in Sri Lanka.

6. Intellectual Property Act, No.36 of 2003
Different Types of Intellectual Property Rights
 Copyright
 Industrial Design
 Patent
 Mark (Trade & Service Marks, Geographical
Indications )

7. Sri Lankan Explanation of IP
 Intellectual Property means the rights resulting
from the creations of the human mind.
 Intellectual Property rights share the
characteristics of other property rights – they can
be owned, alienated and licensed.
 They allow the creator or owner of a patent,
trademark, or copyright etc. to benefit from his
or her own creative work.
 These rights have been recognized in several
international conventions on Intellectual Property.

8. Sri Lankan Explanation of IP
 Intellectual Property is traditionally divided into
two categories:
 (i) Industrial Property which includes patents for
inventions, trademarks and service marks, industrial
designs and Geographical Indications.
 (ii) Copyright which covers literary and artistic works.
The rights of performing artists, producers of sound
recordings and broadcasting organizations are known as
the related rights or neighboring rights.

9. Why Protect?
 Human creativity is the foundation of human
civilization, progress and well-being.
 The protection of creative efforts encourage
further creations, enhances investment and
stimulates transfer of technology and spurs
economic growth, creates new industries and
employment, and enhances the quality and
enjoyment of life.

10. Why Protect?
 Thus, an efficient and equitable intellectual
property system can effectively contribute to the
economic, technological, social and cultural
development.
 The intellectual property system attempts to
achieve a balance between the rights of the
creators and the interest of society as a whole,
thereby introducing an environment where the
creativity in every sphere of human endeavor can
flourish, to the benefit of all.

11. Copyright
 Copyright means the rights given by law to the
creators for their literary and artistic works.
 The rights takes two forms
(a) economic rights
(b) moral rights

12. Why Protected
 Copyright protects the rights of the authors of
literary and artistic works and ensures them the
economic benefits and recognition thereby
promoting creativity in literary and artistic fields
and investment.
 Such creations enhances economic development,
education, culture, and enjoyment of life.

13. What is Covered
 Copyright covers original literary and artistic
works: writings such as books, computer
programs, articles, oral works such as speeches
and lectures, dramas, musical works, films,
drawings, paintings and photographs.
 The woks such as databases and translations are
also protected.
 Section 6 - Works protected
 Section 7 - Derivative works protected

14. What is NOT covered
 No protection shall be extended to news of the
day published, broadcast, or publicly
communicated by any other means.
 Section 8 - Works not protected

15. Formality free
 Protection is accorded without any formality such
as registration in Sri Lanka.

16. Economic Vs Moral Rights
 The economic rights include the right to
reproduce, sell, rent, distribute, communicate to
the public, translate etc
 The moral rights cover the right to claim the
authorship and right to oppose distortion or
mutilation of the work.
 Section 9 - Economic Rights
 Section 10 - Moral Rights

17. Who Owns
 The author is the owner of economic rights but
there are some exceptions such as a work created
by an employee generally belongs to the
employer.
 When an author receives payment from a
corporation or organization to produce a creative
or artistic work, it can be considered a work of
hire.

18. Who Owns
 The economic rights can be assigned or licensed.
 The moral rights always belong to the author.
 Section 14 - Original ownership of economic rights
 Section 15 - Presumption of authorship and of
representation of the author.
 Section 16 - Assignment or license of author’s
rights

19. Duration
 Copyright in Sri Lanka is generally protected
during the life of the author and 70 years after his
death.
 In the case of a work of joint authorship, the
economic and moral rights shall be protected
during the life of the last surviving author and for
a further period of seventy years from the date of
the death of the last surviving author.
 Section 13 - Duration of copyright

20. Fair Use
 Reproduction in copies or by any other means
specified by that section, for purposes such as
criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching
(including multiple copies for classroom use),
scholarship or research, shall not be an
infringement of copyright.
 Section 11 - Fair use
 Section 12 - Act of fair use

21. Infringement of Copyright
 Any person who willfully infringes any of the rights
protected under Part II of this Act (Copyright) shall
be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on
conviction after trial before a Magistrate to a fine not
exceeding rupees five hundred thousand or to
imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months
or to both such fine and such imprisonment, and in
the case of a second or subsequent conviction such
fine or term of imprisonment or both such fine and
imprisonment may be doubled.
 Section 178 - Infringement of Copyright

22. Infringement of Copyright
 The Magistrate may, whether the alleged offender
is convicted or not, order that all copies of the
work and all implements used for the
infringement, or all plates in the possession of the
alleged offender, which appear to him to be
infringing copies, or plates or implements used for
the purpose of making infringing copies, shall be
destroyed or delivered up to the owner of the
right, or otherwise dealt with in such manner as
the Magistrate may think fit.

23. Protection abroad
 The woks of Sri Lankan authors are protected in
all the member countries of the Berne
Convention for the protection of literary and
artistic works under the national law of the
particular country.

24. ICT Related IPs
 Different rights may be used to protect different
aspects of a piece of software.
 SL IP Act No 36 of 2003 doesn’t detail much about
ICT correlation with IP when compared to the
level of UK and US laws.

25. Computer Programs/Software
 Definition of Computer - Electronic or similar
device having information processing capabilities.
 Definition of Computer Program - A set of
instructions expressed in words, codes, schemes
or in any other form, which is capable, when
incorporated in a medium that the computer can
read, of causing a computer to perform or
achieve a particular task or result.

26. Computer Programs/Software
 Protected under Copyright Laws
 World trade Organization –TRIPS Agreement –
Article 10 provides adequate protection.

27. Databases
 Definition - collections of works and collections of
mere data (data bases), whether in machine
readable or other form, provided that such
collections are original by reason of the selection,
co-ordination or arrangement of their contents.
 No separate consideration in SL as compared to
UK and US
 No consideration of outdated DB

28. Databases
 Copyright subsists in a database if ‘its contents
constitute the author’s own intellectual creation’.
Databases that exhibit authorship.
 Require a lot of effort and a lot of money to
prepare.
 Examples might include databases of hotels, pop
songs, or geographic data.

29. Some Simple Techniques to Protect
Computer Programs
 Add a unique statement in code level or display level.
 Statement which is not effect to the core functionality
 As a evidence if copied
 Better if it can encoded to remove readability
 Widely used in 3rd party components
 Minify/ Uglify (Minification/Obfuscation ) whole code
 Widely used in JavaScript
 Even though its main goal to compress the source, can be
used to remove readability to prevent modifications.
What more are
there ?...