In 1998, the Government of India passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which updates copyright laws to address the realities of Digital Technology. With the growth of Technology and more particularly digitization, the entire world has always recognized the need for a Digital Copyright Law. Therefore, the existing Copyright law has evolved, as the trend of maintaining records in the form of Digital data clearly requires protection a need felt all around the world.
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY AND COPYRIGHT ISSUES:
The advancement in technology posed new challenges to the existing copyright laws, as the law was initially developed in the regime of print media that slowly brought under its protective shelter creative works, paintings, drawings, and sculptures, which later expanded to photography and cinema as well. These age-old legislations and their core concepts in copyright law had to be revisited, so as to make digital societal record progress. The technological copiers or recorders make the digital data easily available, which could lead to exploitation of the work vis a vis a free flow of information in society, as the moment this digital record is placed in the public domain on the internet the author loses all control.
The latest Copyright (Amendment) Act 2012:
A fair dealing exception, use for education purpose which were earlier applicable only in relation to certain types of work e.g. literary, dramatic, and musical works, have been made applicable to all types of work.
A fair dealing exception has been extended to the reporting of current events, including the reporting of a lecture delivered in public. Earlier, the fair dealing exception was limited to (i) private or personal use, including research, and (ii) criticism or review, whether of that work or of any other work. Further, it has been clarified that the storing of any work in any electronic medium for the purposes mentioned in this clause, including the incidental storage of any computer programme which is not an infringing copy, does not constitute infringement. The transient and incidental storage of a work or performance purely in the technical process of electronic transmission or communication to the public;
The transient and incidental storage of a work or performance for the purpose of providing electronic links, access, or integration, where such links, access, or integration has not been expressly prohibited by the right holder unless the person responsible is aware or has reasonable grounds for believing that such storage is of an infringing copy: Provided that if the person responsible for the storage of a copy, on a complaint from which any person has been prevented, he may require such person to produce an order within fourteen days from the competent court for the continued prevention of such storage;
The 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 a three‐dimensional object from a two‐dimensional artistic work, such as a technical drawing, for the purposes of industrial application of any purely functional part of a useful device;
The evolution of copyright has been closely linked to technological development. Whereas most technologies made copyright protection more difficult, digital computers managed to alter the fundamental concepts behind copyright. These challenges to the copyright industry have emerged at a time when the share of copyright in national economies is reaching unprecedented levels. It becomes critical to adjust the legal system to respond to the new technological developments in an effective and appropriate way, keeping in view the speed and pace of these developments.
You may also be interested to read the following post relating to copyright laws:
Cost For Registering a Copyright in India
Idea-Expression Dichotomy Under Copyright Law
Capitalising Music In India: Performers’ Royalty Rights
Videography: Protect and get Protection from IP
Copyright: A Man Made Right
