Law Matters | IN Content Law

(Or how Section 52, Indian Copyright Act, works...) (Note: This post was written after my being stunned by conversation in which the argument was made that a film of a woman actually being raped — this wasn't a conversation about simulated rape — could/should be shared on SocMed because such sharing is supposedly fair use under copyright law, because the sharing highlights the issue of violence against women, and because it supposedly puts pressure on the police to arrest the rapist. The ethical and other legal ramifications of that argument aside, this post focusses on the copyright strand of the argument being misplaced. Of course, the post applies not just to the sharing of filmed rape on SocMed but to the indiscriminate use of protected content to raise social concerns including in those cases where the content used is unrelated to the concerns raised.) First draft The Indian Copyright Act, 1957, doesn't contain a fair use provision. What it contains is a long list...

Note: As a general rule, no copyright subsists in the title of a (literary) work but it is not impossible for copyright to subsist in a title. Extract : Krishika Lulla & Ors. v. Shyam Vithalrao Devkatta & Anr. Criminal Appeal No. 258 of 2013 with Criminal Appeal No. 259 OF 2013 (Decided on Oct. 15, 2015) 10. The question that arises is whether copyright exists in the title “Desi Boys”. A title of a work has been considered to be not fit to be the subject of copyright law as will be apparent from the cases considered later. A title by itself is in the nature of a name of a work and is not complete by itself, without the work. No instance of a title having been held to be the subject of copyright has been pointed out to us. 11. It must be noted that in India copyright is a statutory right recognized and protected by The Copyright Act, 1957. It must therefore be first seen if the title “Desi Boys” can be the subject of copyright. On a plain reading of Section 13, copyrig...