As the Indian Copyright Act. Amendment Bill 2010 awaits its fate in the centre's corridors of power, we have been hearing diverse voices from various quarters, including artists, composers, record companies, film producers, publishers and others, with each group expounding their own version of what copyright entails. Amidst this clamor of voices we decided to take a look at what this noise is all about, because in reality most people may not be aware of the full implications and the complexities that Copyright involves.
The Copyright law as we know it today was enacted to protect the exclusive rights granted to authors or creators of original works, to print, publish, distribute and adapt these works, for a specific period of time. It means that other than what is termed as 'Fair Use', a book or a piece of music or creative work may not be copied or distributed or used in any other way, by anyone, without the permission of the author or the holder of the rights to the work, where the author has assigned his rights or part thereof to any other person/s or entity. Though on the surface it may look pretty straight forward it has over time and with advances in communications and technology, become extremely intricate and complex.
The origins of Copyright Law dates back to the 15th - 16th century when the printing press was invented. With the advent of printing, making copies of books, newspapers and pamphlets became faster and enabled the printed material to reach a much wider audience. But the Church and the Monarchy governments who wielded power while welcoming the development were also apprehensive about the spread of dissident thought and radical ideas and wanted to curb it. This lead to European governments imposing a license, without which a printer could not operate, thus exerting control over what could be printed and what could not and became the basis for the formulation of a copyright Law. In England printers then known as stationers, formed a collective known as, the 'Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers', more commonly known as Stationer's Company.
The enactment of the Licensing Act 1662 in Britain, required all lawfully printed books to be entered into the register of the Stationer's Company giving it the power to monopolize the publishing business in Britain. However the Licensing Act 1662 was not renewed by Parliament and it lapsed in May 1695, thus ending the monopoly of the printer's collective. What is pertinent though is that the Licensing Act 1662 was the precursor to the first Copyright Law.
The first Copyright Act was the 'Statute of Anne' named after Queen Anne, the then reigning Queen of Great Britain, which was known by its short title, 'Copyright Act 1709' and by its long title, 'An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or purchasers of such Copies, during the Times therein mentioned'. This path breaking Statute which became effective from April, 1710, is considered as the origin of our present day Copyright Law. It was based on concern for the reading public, to encourage "learned men to compose and write useful books" and the spread of education. It may be noted that even as early as 1709, the preamble of the original Draft Bill recognized explicitly the personal rights of authors and did not place any time frame for the protection of those rights. However this was diluted in the final version of the Act passed by the British Parliament, as seen in the wording of the long title. The Copyright Act 1709 thus did away with the idea of perpetual rights to publishers and introduced a finite period of 14 years after which the copyright re-vested in the author and if the author of the work was still alive at the expiry of that period, for a further period of 14 years. This laid the ground work for all works to pass into the Public Domain after the expiry of the copyright period. It also granted 21 years of protection for any book already in print. The Act retained the requirement of registering with the Stationer's Company, introduced stiff penalty for infringing of copyright and compulsory deposition of all published works with government and university libraries so that the public would have access to all copyrighted works.
The evolution of Copyright law in Europe and the US also followed similar lines. In France authors were given rights in the form of 'Royal Privilege' for a period of 6 years which was renewable indefinitely. In 1761 for the first time the royal privileges were allowed to be transferred to the heirs of the author instead of the publisher of the work. This lead to a national debate as to the nature of literary property and in 1777 it was decreed that the period of the privileges would be for a minimum period of 10 years or the life of the author whichever was longer. He could sell or transfer the privilege or exploit it himself and transfer it to his heirs, who could enjoy the right into perpetuity. The decree did not permit renewal of the privileges and once the privilege had expired it would pass into the public domain. Moreover any work in the public domain could be reproduced by obtaining a 'permission simple'.
After the French Revolution the French Assembly in 1791, declared that the author's rights and the rights of heirs and assignees would be limited to five years after the death of the author and after which it would be public property. In 1793 the French Assembly passed a law that gave authors, composers and artists the exclusive right to sell and distribute their works, and the right was extended to their heirs and assignees for 10 years after the author's death. It also stipulated that author's rights were subject to the condition of depositing copies of the work with the Bibliothèque Nationale. In the US as the Continental Congress could not issue copyright it was left to individual states to formulate their own copyright statutes and the duration of the copyright varied depending on the state. Later in 1790 the first federal copyright act was passed, the Copyright Act of 1790, which other than the inclusion of maps and charts was identical to the Statute of Anne.
Today Copyright Law has come a long way since the first 'Statute of Anne' Act of 1709. Internationally copyright laws are now governed by agreements such as the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, commonly known as the 'Berne Convention', first drawn up in 1886 and revised several times, the last being in 1979 and the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization - an agency of the UN) Copyright Treaties of 1996, that addressed issues raised by advancement in technology and the internet. These agreements and treaties were aimed at bringing about uniformity in copyright laws across countries but geographically jurisdictional differences in copyright law continue to exist due to each country’s peculiar requirements. Member countries who were signatories to the treaties and agreements were bound to honor the rights of authors/artistes from other member countries on the same terms, as governs its own authors/artistes under its own national copyright laws. Member countries were also required to formulate a minimum standard of copyright legislations in accordance with the conditions laid down in the Berne Convention and WIPO Treaties.
The aim of the proposed Indian Copyright Act Amendment Bill 2010, is to bring Indian copyright laws in line with the International Treaties and correct the discrepancies in the existing law. If the Amendment is passed it is expected to bring about major changes in the music, film and entertainment industry in India. However, though parity of copyright law at a global level is desirable, it is often governed by the local and regional compulsions of individual countries leading to differences in the national copyright law of individual countries, This maybe be inevitable but what really matters is that legislations should set in place a copyright law that is fair and equitable to all concerned and be a step forward not backward.
~ Stanley Paul
Ref: Wikipedia