NASSCOM Feedback on Amendments to the Copyright Act, 1957

Terms of use

Terms of Use

The use of this site and the content contained therein is governed by the Terms of Use. When you use this site you acknowledge that you have read the Terms of Use and that you accept and will be bound by the terms hereof and such terms as may be modified from time to time.

All text, graphics, audio, design and other works on the site are the copyrighted works of nasscom unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.
Content on the site is for personal use only and may be downloaded provided the material is kept intact and there is no violation of the copyrights, trademarks, and other proprietary rights. Any alteration of the material or use of the material contained in the site for any other purpose is a violation of the copyright of nasscom and / or its affiliates or associates or of its third-party information providers. This material cannot be copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, transmitted or distributed in any way for non-personal use without obtaining the prior permission from nasscom.
The nasscom Members login is for the reference of only registered nasscom Member Companies.
nasscom reserves the right to modify the terms of use of any service without any liability. nasscom reserves the right to take all measures necessary to prevent access to any service or termination of service if the terms of use are not complied with or are contravened or there is any violation of copyright, trademark or other proprietary right.
From time to time nasscom may supplement these terms of use with additional terms pertaining to specific content (additional terms). Such additional terms are hereby incorporated by reference into these Terms of Use.

Disclaimer

The Company information provided on the nasscom web site is as per data collected by companies. nasscom is not liable on the authenticity of such data.
nasscom has exercised due diligence in checking the correctness and authenticity of the information contained in the site, but nasscom or any of its affiliates or associates or employees shall not be in any way responsible for any loss or damage that may arise to any person from any inadvertent error in the information contained in this site. The information from or through this site is provided "as is" and all warranties express or implied of any kind, regarding any matter pertaining to any service or channel, including without limitation the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement are disclaimed. nasscom and its affiliates and associates shall not be liable, at any time, for any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorised access to, alteration of, or use of information contained on the site. No representations, warranties or guarantees whatsoever are made as to the accuracy, adequacy, reliability, completeness, suitability or applicability of the information to a particular situation.
nasscom or its affiliates or associates or its employees do not provide any judgments or warranty in respect of the authenticity or correctness of the content of other services or sites to which links are provided. A link to another service or site is not an endorsement of any products or services on such site or the site.
The content provided is for information purposes alone and does not substitute for specific advice whether investment, legal, taxation or otherwise. nasscom disclaims all liability for damages caused by use of content on the site.
All responsibility and liability for any damages caused by downloading of any data is disclaimed.
nasscom reserves the right to modify, suspend / cancel, or discontinue any or all sections, or service at any time without notice.

For any grievances under the Information Technology Act 2000, please get in touch with Grievance Officer, Mr. Anirban Mandal at data-query@nasscom.in.

New

See all

No notification found.

NASSCOM Feedback on Amendments to the Copyright Act, 1957

Indrajeet Sircar

@IndrajeetSircar

January 4, 2021

Public Policy

173

Earlier in October 2020, the Copyright Office (DPIIT, MoC) sought inputs on potential amendments to the Copyright Act, 1957 (Copyright Act), in view of increased digitization of content, and the use of internet and new technologies to disseminate works where copyright subsist.

Consequently, NASSCOM reached out to the industry seeking comments on potential amendments to the Copyright Act. Based on the feedback received from the industry, NASSCOM submitted its inputs to the Copyright Office on 31 December 2020. NASSCOM’s recommendations focus largely around emergent issues relating to the online dissemination of content, and issues relating to the statutory procedures for obtaining licenses and payment and apportionment of royalties.

In particular, NASSCOM made the following recommendations:

Section 18 of the Copyright Act should be revisited to clarify the interpretation of the term “equal basis” in the context of apportionment of royalties between the author and assignee of a work, and enabling third party users to pay the full amount to either of the assignee or author, with the apportionment being settled at a subsequent stage as per contractual terms between the author and assignee.
Provisions relating to Statutory Licensing (Section 31C and 31D) be revisited. In particular, restrictions on obtaining statutory license for cover versions of music recordings (under Section 31C) should be eased, and electronic media such as online streaming should be included within the scope of statutory license for broadcasting (under Section 31D)
The requirements for registering as a Copyright Society (under Section 33) should be extended to any entity (including licensees of the work and collection societies) that is engaged in the business of issuing or granting licenses in respect of copyrighted works. Moreover, the issue of multiplicity of Copyright Societies, and the resultant uncertainty in identification of appropriate Copyright Societies at the time of seeking licenses should be addressed through appropriate technological solutions.
There is a need to harmonise the provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Copyright Act, vis-à-vis safe-harbours available to online content sharing platforms – particularly with regard to liability arising from infringing content hosted at the direction of end-users. While no unanimous or uniform approach exists across jurisdictions, the Government should consult the industry and other relevant stakeholders to clarify the limits and scope of the safe-harbour available to intermediaries in such cases.
There might be some merit in revisiting Section 52 of the Copyright Act, to transition from a granular and exclusive list of fair dealing exceptions, to a principle based and inclusive list –which enables further innovation and creativity. The Government should consult the industry and other stakeholders towards revising the “fair dealing” standards under law. Additionally, the Government should consider incorporating data and text-mining related exemptions under Section 52, in line with similar exemptions adopted in other jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom and Japan.

The full submission is available below. Please reach out to deepak@nasscom.in and indrajeet@nasscom.in, should you have any queries relating to the submission.

DPIIT copyright act copyright intellectual property rights online streaming intermediary liability safe harbor text and data mining exemption eu copyright directive copyright office copyright amendments

Disclaimer

That the contents of third-party articles/blogs published here on the website, and the interpretation of all information in the article/blogs such as data, maps, numbers, opinions etc. displayed in the article/blogs and views or the opinions expressed within the content are solely of the author's; and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of NASSCOM or its affiliates in any manner. NASSCOM does not take any liability w.r.t. content in any manner and will not be liable in any manner whatsoever for any kind of liability arising out of any act, error or omission. The contents of third-party article/blogs published, are provided solely as convenience; and the presence of these articles/blogs should not, under any circumstances, be considered as an endorsement of the contents by NASSCOM in any manner; and if you chose to access these articles/blogs , you do so at your own risk.

Download Attachment

Indrajeet Sircar

Consultant, Public Policy and Outreach