Copyrights
Public Domain Day – The Day that Copyright Endeth
The first of January of each year is, well, the New Year’s Day for most part of the world. It is also another reason for celebration for some authors, researchers, archivists and book publishers. January 1st also happens to be Public Domain Day. Each year on this day the copyright in older works…
Copyright is no monkey business – According to U.S Court Judgement
If you haven’t seen this photograph before (which is highly unlikely) you might think is that for real? Did a monkey actually take a selfie? The answer is yes! This beaming monkey has attained pop culture popularity in over the past two years. Coming back to business, the reason why the image above…
Whose Work is it Anyway? Orphan works in the time of file sharing
An Orphan work is a copyright protected work whose author is unidentifiable, which means that it is not possible to contact the author of the work due to the fact that there is no information about him/her, or he/she can’t be traced or because the person is dead. In the age of the internet and easy…
5 things every Software Developer should include in his Software Development Agreement/Contract
The legal issues surrounding software development can be sometimes complex and often confusing. It is not unusual for developers to take up development gigs without any formal engagement in writing resulting in bitter experiences. By understanding the importance of agreements in a software…
Copyright protection for jokes – Not a joke anymore?
Thou shal not steal is definitely the underlying point of all intellectual property rights, and Twitter reaffirmed this by deleting a tweet on a complaint made by Olga Lexell, a freelance writer from Los Angeles. Her premise was that she’s a freelance writer who makes her living writing jokes and…
Decoding software programmes and Copyrights in India
The other day I was just walking on the road trying to get somewhere when someone just handed me this pamphlet which stated that the coaching centre was providing some kind of training to get a hang of this particular software at a certain fee. I passed it on to one of my friends who I thought…
Moral Rights vs Copyright, Everything you need to know
The general notion, I’m sure is that copyright is a bundle of rights which is primarily an economic right (unless you are Gandhi, who resisted to enforce the copyright in his work for economic gain as economic rights) more than it being an indicator of the source of origin of the goods as in the…
Decoding the mystery of copyright ownership, source code and software in India
As a software developer, there are a lot of things that need to be taken into consideration at the time of negotiation with the person engaging you to develop the software. It is very crucial to read the agreements that you might sign. On the other hand, as a person engaging a third party to…
Introduction to protection of copyright in India
Protection for literary, artistic, dramatic, cinematographic works, and sound recordings are possible by registration with the Copyright Office in India by filing an application online or with the Copyright Office in Delhi. Although protection for any of the copyright protected works exist from the…
Copyrights myths and facts
I realised how there are so many myths that exist in the minds of people around us when I recently got into an argument with one of the people at my gym about music and licensing. So to give a little bit of a background, the lawyer in me urges me to go ask the shop owner/restaurant owner or any…