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The Copyright Act In India

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Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), is the responsibility of the Union of Human Resource Development, Department of Secondary Higher Education. The copyright Office was established in January 1958 to register copyright of works under different categories.

As per section 33 of the copyright act, the central government also registers copyright societies for doing copyright business.

The Indian copyright act, 1957 was comprehensively amended in 1994 taking into account the technological developments. The amended act was brought into force on 10 May 1957. The Act as further amended in 1999, came into force on 15 January 2000. Under the provisions of section 11 of the copyright act, 1957, the Government of India has constituted a Board to be called the copyright board.

The copyright board is a quasi-judicial body consisting of a chairman and not les than two or more than fourteen other members.

The chairman and other members of the board are appointed for a term of five years. The copyright board was reconstituted for a term of five years with effect from 22 February 2001. The Board hears cases regarding rectification of copyright registration, disputes in respect of assignment of copyright and granting licenses in works withheld from public.

Intellectual Property Education, Research and Public Outreach
1 Scheme for financial assistance on intellectual property right studies and

2 Scheme of organizing seminars and workshops on copyright matters were introduced for implementation from August 1998. The scheme for financial assistance on intellectual property rights studies was introduced with an aim of creating general awareness about IPR maters among academic community and encouraging study of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in the universities and other recognized institutions, etc.

The scheme of organizing seminars and workshops on copyright related issues, training of enforcement personnel, etc. both the schemes were merged into a single scheme “scheme of intellectual property education, research and public outreach (IPERPO)” together with another plan scheme, namely, financial assistance on world trade organization (WTO) studies, in the tenth plan.

Through the scheme, several universities, educational institutions and NGO, in the field are provided assistance every year to conduct research, seminars, studies, hold conferences, establish intellectual property rights (IPRs) chairs have been established in 16 institutions including law colleges, management ad technical institutions and university teaching departments.

Copyright Enforcement in India

The Indian copyright act, 1957, provides penalties for the offers committed under the copyright act and empowers the police to take necessary action. The actual enforcement of the law is the concern of the state governments. However, during the last few years, the central government has taken various steps to improve the enforcement of the copyright act to curb piracy.

These measures include the setting up of a copyright act to curb piracy. These measures include the setting up of a copyright enforcement advisory council (CEAC), which has as its members from all concerned departments and representatives of industry to regularly review the implementation of the copyright act including the provisions regarding anti-piracy,. Several other measures taken by the central government include, persuading the state government for

1 The setting up of special cells in state government for enforcement of copyright laws

2 Appointment of nodal officers in the states for facilitating proper coordination between the industry organizations and enforcement agencies

3 Holding of seminars/workshops, etc., for sensitizing the public about copyright laws

4 Collective administration by copyright societies and

5 Holding of conference of nodal officers.

Cooperation with WIPO

India is a member of the World intellectual property organization (WIPO) a specialized agency of the United Nation which deals with copyright and other intellectual property rights and plays an important role in all its deliberations.

An annual contribution of Rs. 40 lakh is earmarked as a contribution to World intellectual property organization, subject to foreign exchange rate fluctuations. In association with World intellectual property organization during the previous year, we held an Asia pacific regional seminar on copyrights in the digital era and also a workshop on traditional knowledge for SAARC countries.

General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)

The last round of general agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT) in 1994 gave rise to multilateral agreement on Trade under the World trade organization (WTO). Prior to emergence of the WTO, there was no multilateral agreement on services. The world trade organization came into existence on 1 January 1995. The next round negotiations in 1996 led to a comprehensive agreement on international trade in services.

The objective of the agreement is the progressive liberalization of trade in services. It is to provide secure and more open market in services in manner similar as the GATT has done for trade in goods. Education is one of the twelve services, which are to be negotiated under the general agreement on trade in services (GATS). Education has been divided into five categories for the purposes of negotiation:

1 Higher Education,

2 Secondary Education

3 Primary Education

4 Adult Education and

5 Other Education

General agreement on trade in services (GATS) prescribes the following four modes of Trade in services including education services

1 Cross-border supply of a service includes any type of course that is provided through distance education or the internet, any type of testing service, and educational materials which can cross national boundaries.

2 Consumption abroad mainly involved availing services abroad, i.e., students going abroad and is the most common form of trade in educational services

3 Commercial presence refers to the actual presence of foreign investors in a host country. This would include foreign universities setting up courses or entire institutions in another county and

4 Presence of natural persons refers to the ability of people to move between countries to provide educational services.

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Tags: copyright, copyright act 1957, Copyright Enforcement in India, GATS, General Agreement on Trade in Services, World intellectual property organization, world trade organisation, WTO