Copyright

While going through Calcutta High Court’s order dated December 22, 2017 in the matter of Saregama India Limited vs The New Digital Media & Anr ,  a portion discussing Section 31D of the Copyright Act, 1957 caught my attention. The portion reads as under: “In any view of the matter even...

The Bombay HC has recently gone on to admit a recent petition filed in lieu of the issue of subsistence of copyright in old traditional songs in various languages. As reported herein, a complaint had been filed in the form of an FIR at the Malad police station in...

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade) has notified on May 30, 2019 the proposed amendments to the Copyright Rules, 2013 (“Proposed Rules”) in exercise of its powers conferred under Section 78 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The Ministry has sought objections...

The Kerala High Court in O. P. Ashraf v The State of Kerala and Others (can be accessed here) has held that the prosecution could not establish the necessary ingredients which constitute copyright infringement under Section 51(a) of the Copyright Act, 1957, and therefore the High Court has now...

Recently the dispute between Shumita Deb (daughter of legendary musician Late Manna Dey) and Saregama reached the Supreme Court where the latter agreed to remove and not make any further use of the photographs and the name of Manna Dey on the cover of the subject CDs on a...

The Delhi High Court on August 30, 2022 directed mobile messaging platform ‘Telegram’ to disclose details such as devices, mobile numbers and internet protocol addresses used to operate channels involved in copyright infringement cases. Read order here. The Court was hearing a suit filed by a teacher Neetu Singh (“Plaintiff’”),...

In my previous post here, I had covered details of the legal notice issued by Mr. Javed Akhtar to Armaan Malik, Amaal Malik and T Series in relation to the recreated version of the song ‘Ghar Se Nikalte Hi’. In this post, I shall be analysing the legal position on...

The DPIIT Committee’s Working Paper on Generative AI (“AI”) and Copyright proposes a mandatory blanket license permitting AI developers to use all lawfully accessed copyrighted works for training, coupled with a statutory remuneration right. The proposal suffers from three fundamental defects: it constructs remedial architecture without establishing that any...

Producers Copyright Guild (PCG) has issued a public notice in a trade magazine inviting all sound recording and cinematographic film authors to get membership of the PCG. ‘Author’ referred in the public notice is “Producer” as defined under Section 2 (d)(v) of the Copyright Act, 1957. The public notice further...

The Delhi High Court’s recent decision in Samir Kasal v. Prashant Mehta delved into the question of copyrightability of cricket. It also delved into the legal principles of breach of confidentiality, while also demotivating plaintiff’s intention to cause harm to the defendants by approaching the Court at the nick...