Law Matters | IN Content Law

Sometime ago, an article on Slashdot reported that some entities had claimed that " linking is publishing ". While it is unlikely that such a position would be supported by many today, at least as far as making a credible claim of copyright infringement in India is concerned, what's interesting about the claim is that it seems to harken to the early years of the Internet when lawyers were actually grappling with such questions, and attempting to determine the legality of not just linking in general but of the various kinds of linking. An article written earlier on the subject has been reproduced below. (Note: This post does not focus on ISP liability. It was first published at Lawmatters.in and is also available here at SSRN. ) A hyperlink usually links one document (an anchor) on the Internet to another document (the target). Usually referred to as a links, hyperlinks may be one directional, bi-directional or may be used in more complex patterns. There are seve...

An interesting paper available at SSRN by Madhavi Sunder whose Abstract begins by stating: Free flow of culture is not always fair flow of culture. A recent spate of copyright suits by Hollywood against Bollywood accuses the latter of ruthlessly copying movie themes and scenes from America. But claims of cultural appropriation go far back, and travel in multiple directions. ... The paper is available here .

Most cases of copyright infringement are relatively routine and involve a copyright owner (who is generally well-financed) claiming that someone is in violation of its exclusive “right to public performance” – that wonderfully broad right under which a large number of uses of works could be made to fall, given a little imagination. Every once in while, though, there is a case which does not fit the stereotype, and almost every time that happens, the issue may, at first glance, cause amusement. Very often though, there are interesting underlying issues though – even if they are issues which would not generally interest anyone other than a copyright enthusiast. Some of the most interesting cases come from the world of art and entertainment, often because artists quite simply disregard copyright law, or at least the version of copyright law which content owners who specialise in the collection and commercialisation of copyrights would like to see prevail. Art is rarely new. And it i...

SSRN Films and the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010 Disability and the Indian Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010 The Book Debate An Analysis of the PSC Report on the 2010 Copyright Bill mylaw.net (Free registration required) Access to copyrighted works under proposed amendments DRM and safe harbour provisions in proposed copyright amendment Amending the film and music industry Doctrine of first sale to be adopted Indian Copyright Amendment 2010

The law relating to the exhaustion of rights with respect to CDs has thus far been primarily derived from Vernor (in the US). However, the ruling of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the case of UMG Recordings, Inc. v. Troy Augusto could change have the effect of changing this by restricting the application of Vernor to software. UMG mailed CDs without solicitation to persons for marketing purposes, and these CDs were later sold. UMG claimed that the sale infringed its right to distribution. However, it was held that the unsolicited distribution by UMG of the CDs constituted a first sale as far as the first sale doctrine was concerned: Did UMG succeed in creating a license in recipients of its promotional CDs, or did it convey title despite the restrictive labeling on the CDs? We conclude that, under all the circumstances of the CDs’ distribution, the recipients were entitled to use or dispose of them in any manner they saw fit, and UMG did not enter a license agree...