A
- Adaptation
- Turning a work into another form — a novel into a screenplay, a story into a film, a two-dimensional drawing into a three-dimensional object. Adaptation is one of the exclusive rights under Section 14, so a remix or a film version needs the owner's consent.
- Anonymous Work
- A work published without identifying the author. Copyright runs for sixty years from publication rather than from the author's death, unless the author's identity is disclosed within that period.
- Artistic Work
- A painting, sculpture, drawing, engraving, photograph, work of architecture or any other work of artistic craftsmanship — protected under Section 2(c) whether or not it possesses artistic quality.
- Assignment of Copyright
- Transfer of copyright, which must be in writing and signed. Section 19 requires the work, the rights, the term and the territory to be identified; where the term is not stated it is five years, and where the territory is not stated it is India. An assignment lapses if the assignee does not exercise the rights within one year.
- The creator of the work — the writer of a literary work, the composer of music, the artist of an artistic work, the photographer of a photograph, the producer of a film or sound recording, and for computer-generated works, the person who causes the work to be created.
B
- Berne Convention
- The treaty under which member countries protect each other's works automatically, without formality. It is why an Indian work is protected in over 180 countries without any filing, and why registration in India is optional.
- Broadcast Reproduction Right
- The right of a broadcasting organisation, under Section 37, to control re-broadcasting, recording and reproduction of its broadcast for twenty-five years. It is a neighbouring right, separate from copyright in the underlying content.
C
- Cinematograph Film
- A work of visual recording, including a sound recording accompanying it. Copyright lasts sixty years from publication, and the producer is the first owner and author under Section 2(d)(v).
- Communication to the Public
- Making a work available to the public by any means, whether or not anyone actually receives it — broadcasting, streaming, playing music in a shop. It is an exclusive right, and it is why public performance of recorded music requires a licence.
- Compulsory Licence
- A licence granted by the Commercial Court or, formerly, the Appellate Board, where a work is withheld from the public or the owner cannot be traced. Sections 31, 31A and 31B cover works withheld from the public, unpublished or anonymous works, and works for the disabled.
- Computer Programme
- A set of instructions expressed in words, codes or schemes, capable of causing a computer to perform a task. Indian law protects it as a literary work under Section 2(o), so source code carries copyright from the moment it is written.
- Copyright
- The bundle of exclusive rights in an original literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, film or sound recording — to reproduce it, issue copies, perform it, communicate it to the public, adapt it and translate it. It arises automatically on creation; registration is optional.
- Copyright Act, 1957
- The statute governing copyright in India, substantially amended in 2012 to add performers' rights, the non-waivable royalty right for authors of literary and musical works in films, statutory licensing and exceptions for the disabled.
- Copyright Board
- The former adjudicating body for copyright disputes, licensing and rate-setting. Its functions passed to the Appellate Board in 2017 and, on that body's abolition in 2021, to the Commercial Courts and High Courts.
- Copyright Office
- The office administering copyright registration in India, under the DPIIT. It maintains the Register of Copyrights and publishes applications monthly, which serves as notice for objections.
- Copyright Society
- A body registered under Section 33 to license works and collect royalties on behalf of owners — IPRS for literary and musical works, PPL and Novex for sound recordings, ISRA for performers. Only a registered society may carry on the business of issuing licences in a class of works.
- Creative Commons
- A family of standard public licences letting authors permit reuse on stated conditions — attribution, share-alike, non-commercial, no-derivatives. The work remains under copyright; the licence simply grants permissions in advance.
D
- Derivative Work
- A work based on an existing one — a translation, adaptation, arrangement or abridgment. It attracts its own copyright in what the later author added, but making it requires permission from the owner of the underlying work.
- Dramatic Work
- Any piece for recitation, choreographic work or entertainment in dumb show, the scenic arrangement or acting form of which is fixed in writing. It does not include a cinematograph film.
- Duration of Copyright
- Sixty years. For literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works it runs from the end of the year of the author's death; for films, sound recordings, photographs, anonymous works and government works, from the end of the year of publication.
E
- Exclusive Licence
- A licence giving the licensee rights to the exclusion of all others, including the owner. Like an assignment, it must be in writing and signed, and an exclusive licensee can sue in its own name.
F
- Fair Dealing
- The Indian exception, in Section 52, permitting use for private or personal use including research, criticism or review, and reporting current events. It is a closed list of purposes, unlike the open-ended American fair use, so a use that falls outside the listed purposes is not saved merely by being reasonable.
- First Owner
- Ordinarily the author. Section 17 makes exceptions: for works made in the course of employment under a contract of service, the employer; for a commissioned photograph, painting or portrait, the person who commissioned it; and for a film, the producer.
I
- Idea–Expression Dichotomy
- Copyright protects the expression of an idea, never the idea itself. Two writers may treat the same plot; infringement turns on whether the later work copies the manner of expression, tested in India by the lay observer standard from R.G. Anand v. Delux Films.
- Infringement
- Doing anything the copyright owner alone has the right to do, without licence — copying, issuing copies, performing in public, communicating to the public, or making an adaptation. Substantial similarity, not identity, is enough.
J
- John Doe Order
- An injunction against unnamed defendants, used against piracy where the infringers cannot be identified in advance. Indian courts issue them as 'Ashok Kumar' orders, commonly before a film's release.
L
- Literary Work
- Any work expressed in print or writing, including computer programmes, tables and compilations such as databases. Literary merit is irrelevant.
M
- Moral Rights
- The author's rights under Section 57 to claim authorship (paternity) and to restrain distortion, mutilation or modification prejudicial to honour or reputation (integrity). They stay with the author even after copyright is assigned, and cannot be waived away — as Amar Nath Sehgal v. Union of India established for a destroyed mural.
- Musical Work
- A work consisting of music, including its graphical notation, but excluding any words or action intended to be sung, spoken or performed with it — those are the literary work.
N
- Neighbouring Rights
- Rights related to but distinct from copyright, belonging to performers, producers of sound recordings and broadcasting organisations.
O
- Originality
- The requirement that the work originate with the author and involve some minimal creativity. Indian courts follow the modicum of creativity standard from Eastern Book Company v. D.B. Modak, rejecting the older sweat-of-the-brow approach.
- Orphan Work
- A work whose owner cannot be identified or traced. Section 31A allows an applicant to seek a licence to publish it, after publishing a proposal and satisfying the licensing authority that the owner cannot be found.
- Authorship is a question of who created the work; ownership is a question of who holds the rights. They frequently differ — an employed programmer authors the code, the employer owns it.
P
- Performer's Right
- The right of a performer, under Section 38, to control the recording and reproduction of their performance for fifty years. The 2012 amendment added moral rights for performers and a right to royalties for commercial use.
- Public Domain
- The state of a work whose copyright term has expired, or which never attracted copyright. Public domain works may be used freely, though a new edition or arrangement of one may carry its own copyright in what was added.
- Publication
- Making copies of a work available to the public, or communicating it to the public. The date of publication starts the copyright term for films, sound recordings and anonymous works.
R
- Registration of Copyright
- Entry of a work in the Register of Copyrights. It is optional — copyright exists without it — but the certificate is prima facie evidence of ownership in court and in takedown proceedings, which makes it worth having. Applications are published monthly, allowing thirty days for objections.
- Reproduction Right
- The right to make copies of the work in any material form, including storing it electronically. It is the most basic of the exclusive rights.
- The non-waivable right, introduced in 2012 through Sections 18 and 19(9)–(10), of authors of literary and musical works used in films to share equally in royalties from uses other than exhibition in a cinema hall. It cannot be assigned away except to legal heirs or a copyright society.
S
- Safe Harbour
- The protection under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act for intermediaries that host content without knowledge or control, provided they observe due diligence and act on notice. It is what makes notice-and-takedown the practical remedy against online infringement.
- Section 31D Statutory Licence
- The statutory licence permitting a broadcaster to communicate published works to the public on payment of royalties fixed by the authority. In Tips Industries v. Wynk Music the Bombay High Court held it does not extend to internet streaming services.
- Sound Recording
- A recording of sounds from which they can be produced, regardless of medium. It carries copyright separate from the musical and literary works recorded — which is why licensing a song usually needs more than one permission.
- Statutory Licence for Cover Versions
- Section 31C permits a cover version of a musical work five years after the original recording, on prior notice, payment of prescribed royalties, and without altering the work or packaging it to mislead. It does not extend to remixes, which are adaptations requiring consent.
- Substantial Similarity
- The test for infringement: whether the later work reproduces a substantial part of the earlier one, judged qualitatively rather than by counting words or bars.
T
- Term of Protection
- See Duration of Copyright — sixty years, measured from the author's death or from publication depending on the class of work.
- Translation Right
- The exclusive right to translate the work into another language. It is separate from the reproduction right, and India also provides a compulsory licence route for translations in certain cases.
W
- Work for Hire
- The concept, familiar from US law, by which a commissioning party is treated as author. India has no general work-for-hire doctrine — Section 17 achieves a similar result only for employment, commissioned photographs, paintings and portraits, and films, which is why written assignment clauses matter in Indian contracts.