How to Register your work under the Copyright Act in India?

WHAT IS A COPYRIGHT?

A COPYRIGHT is a legal right established by the law of a country that grants the creator of an original work exclusive right for its use and distribution all around the country. This is usually for a given time period. These exclusive rights are not pure but limited by the copyright law of the country. A major limitation on copyright is that it does not protect the underlying ideas themselves. Copyright only protects the original ideas for an expression.

COPYRIGHT is only applicable to certain forms of creative work like music, literary, dramatics, sound recordings, artistic works and the producers of cinematographic films. Copyright works in a tangible form. These rights are generally shared among multiple creators, each of whom holds a set of rights to use or license the work. These multiple creators are the RIGHT HOLDERS of the asset.

These copyrights are often considered as territorial rights, which mean they do not act beyond the guidelines of a specific jurisdiction. Copyrights vary from country to country.

 

COPYRIGHT ACT IN INDIA.

The Copyright Act, 1957 governs the subject of copyright law in India. The Copyright Act is applicable from 21 January 1958. This act has been amended six times. The most recent amendment was made in the year 2012, through the Amendment Act 2012. The main purpose of amendments is to bring surety to the creators and authors that their work is safe. The history of copyright in India goes back to the British era with the advent of the Indian Copyright Act, 1914.

COPYRIGHT PROTECTION IN INDIA

The Copyright Act, 1957 provides copyright protection in India. It confirms copyright protection in the following two ways.

  • Economic rights of the author, and
  • Moral rights of the author.
  • Economic Rights:

 By a law of India, the copyright owners have the exclusive right to authorize or interdict any of the following acts in relation to their work:

  • Reproducing or copying of the original work.
  • Distributing the copies of work to the public of the country.
  • Advertising, performing or showing their work in public.
  • Broadcasting their work through electronic transmissions to the public of the country
  • Rent or lend your work to public (except the library loans are always permitted)
  • Adapting to the changes in the world by amending their work regularly.

You can give away your economic rights to another organization or person.

  • Moral Rights:

 Moral rights are a set of rights that are owned by the author or creator of a work by virtue of their role as the author or creator. This includes the right to the integrity of work, right of attribution, and publishing their work openly in public.

These moral rights allow you to:

  • to claim authorship of your work
  • object to your work if it is being used in a critical or disrespectful way or even without your permission
  • to restrain or claim damages in respect of any turmoil, modification or any other act in relation to the said work which is to be done before the expiration of the term of copyright

Registering your work under the Copyright Act, 1957 in India

The copyright office has been set up to provide registration facilities to all types of works and is headed by a Registrar of Copyrights which is located at 4th Floor, Jeevan Deep Building, New Delhi-110001. The applications for registration of works can be filled at the counter provided at the copyright office from 2:30 P.M TO 4:40 P.M from Monday to Friday. Copyright applications are also accepted by post. On-line registration through “E-filling facility” has been from 14th February 2014.

Procedure for Registration of a Work in India

The procedure for Copyright registration is as follows:

  1. Application for registration is to be made on Form IV as prescribed in the first schedule to the rules;
  2. Separate applications for each different work;
  3. Each application should be accompanied by the requisite fee;
  4. The application should be signed by the applicant or the advocate in whose favor Power of Attorney has been executed; and
  5. The fee is either in the form of Demand draft, Indian Postal Order favoring “Registrar Of Copyright Payable At New Delhi” or through E-payment.

Why Is It Important To Have a Copyright?

Copyright is an essential for the authors or creators as it provides them the with-a legal right of ownership of the work that they produce.

This means that only the creators or authors have control over their work and ever how it used, which is not only fair but necessary for them to make a living out of their talent, research and efforts.

8 years ago

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