The right to copy

Do you think
1.Copyright exists in an idea or theme or knowledge?
2.Copyright is the right to permit copying in a broad sense?
3.If you were to come across a Spanish work and translate it into Tamil or Urdu, that would tantamount to violation of copyright.
4.As an author, that unless you register your work with the copyright board or the registrar of copyright, the copyright law does not protect you.
5. Copyright for a work exists during the lifetime of the author and falls into public domain immediately after his death?
6. An author cannot assign copyright in his work to anyone else.
7. Copyright law varies from country to country and as such infringement in one country leads to immunity in another.
8. A title of a book can be copyright protected.

Music (sound recording), cinema, software, drama, performing arts and literary (and other forms of artistic) works fall under the domain of copyright law. The write-up that follows mainly deals with copyright law relating to books.

In broad terms, copyright is the right to copy. The copyright owner of a literary work has the right to make copies or reproduce the work and disseminate it to the public. In essence, the copyright law enables the copyright holder to a) reproduce the work in print/ electronic/multimedia form and issue copies to the public b) make a film or audio recording or perform or communicate the work c) translate the work and
d) adapt, spin-off, custom publish the work.

In any literary work, the first owner of copyright is always the author. It is the author of the work who assigns the copyright to a publisher for mutual benefit. Copyright is a basket or bundle of rights. The copyright owner may assign all or some of the rights. For instance, an author PK Madhavan (hypothetical) is the original owner of the copyright for the book Nine Lives of Madhu. He enters into a contract with a publisher Vijay Nicole for publishing the book in print format for the Indian Territory in all Indian languages. So the Indian territorial, adaptation and language rights for this book are with Vijay Nicole. Vijay Nicole in turn may sign up with various Indian language publishers for publishing in Bengali, Malayalam etc. The author may also sign up separate contracts for cinema and music rights in all Indian languages. The international rights for publishing this book may be with Simon Schuster, a New York based publisher or any other publisher. All dealings in most cases benefit the author and/or the copyright owner. All assignment of copyright should be in writing and cover certain legal requirements.

It may be surprising to realize that copyright does not exist in an idea, theme or fact or knowledge. Copyright is vested in the ex-pression of all these. Copyright exists in the form, style, ex-pression, manner, presentation, symbolic representation like figures, drawings, illustrations, etc. For example, a sand clock in a class VI textbook caused a peculiar problem to two publishers. The published books of the two publishers had identical sand clocks, which was all right. But the frame had the same design. It was this frame and its design which was the bone of contention. Finally the problem was solved, as the artist was the culprit. Both publishers had engaged the same artist. As the artist was hard-pressed for time, he had used the same figure.

Likewise there is no copyright to a title of a book.

In India, the duration of copyright starts from the time the work is created, remains so during the lifetime of the author and then subsists for a period of 60 years after the death of the author. In the case of a photograph, the copyright is for a period of 60 years from its publication.

The Indian Copyright Act 1957 is amended from time to time and incorporates features of international conventions, treaties including the Berne convention and Universal Copyright Convention (UCC). While some provisions in copyright law vary from country to country, the fundamental charter is the same facilitating free flow of information and protection of intellectual property rights.

An author of a work need not register copyright to claim ownership. If an author writes his work by hand or by any other means, he becomes the copyright owner. The need for registration arises only in the case of a legal dispute. Of course it is important to be able to prove the original piece of work and the date of its creation. For instance, the date of storing of the work on a computer is considered adequate evidence. Some authors do post a copy of their work by a registered post to themselves thereby establishing their ownership of their work. Of course they may have to leave the parcel unopened to be opened by a court of law or any other authority in case of a violation. In India, we use the copyright symbol © and the year of publication. In some countries using the copyright symbol © is not mandatory.

When any copyright material is used with permission, for personal use, research and when such use is not substantial and does not cause a loss to the copyright owner, it is said to be fair dealing. Copyright violation happens in many forms including plagiarism, paraphrasing, photocopying, piracy and so on.

For more information on copyright, do consult www.mhrd.govt.in, www.copyright.com, , www.nasscom.org, www.ipww.com, and the wikipedia.

I am not a lawyer. I have written this to provide some insight into copyright law and the attempt is provide information. Of course I have consulted the copyright bare act and other sources believed to be reliable. I would prefer not to answer individual questions relating to copyright. I welcome your views, suggestions and comments.