Section 21 of the Copyright Act, 1957 gives the owner of a work the right to relinquish all or any of the rights in it.
Relinquishment means surrendering or abandoning rights. Once relinquished, the author no longer holds the surrendered rights and cannot claim ownership over them.
Because copyright is a bundle of rights, the author chooses what to give up. It can be a single right or many.
How to relinquish
There are two routes. Either give notice to the Registrar of Copyrights on Form I, or give public notice.
Notice to the Registrar
Where notice is given to the Registrar:
- The Registrar publishes the notice in the Official Gazette.
- Within fourteen days, the notice is posted on the Copyright Office website.
- It remains on the website for a period of not less than three years.
The rights cease to exist from the date of the notice.
Public notice
Where the author relinquishes by public notice instead, the notice must include:
- Class of the work.
- Title of the work.
- Full name, address and nationality of the author.
- Language of the work.
- Full name, address and nationality of the publisher, if published, with the year and country of first publication.
- Registration number, if the copyright is registered under Section 45.
- The right or rights being relinquished.
- The date of relinquishment.
“Public notice” means one of the following:
- A notice on the work or the cover of the work; or
- Publication in one issue of a daily newspaper in English circulating in the major part of the country, and one issue of a daily newspaper in the language of the work; or
- Posting the notice on the website of the Copyright Office.
What relinquishment does not affect
Relinquishment does not prejudice rights that already subsist in favour of others at the date of the notice.
If you have already assigned or licensed rights to someone, relinquishing does not disturb what they hold. You cannot use relinquishment to unwind commitments you have made.
When this comes up
Relinquishment is uncommon, and that is worth saying plainly. Most authors who want their work freely usable achieve it through an open licence rather than by surrendering rights, because a licence keeps the framework intact while permitting broad use.
Relinquishment is absolute in a way a licence is not. It is worth being certain before filing the notice, because there is no straightforward route back.
Frequently asked questions
Can I relinquish only some rights? Yes. Section 21 allows the author to relinquish all or any of the rights, so you can surrender specific rights and retain the rest.
Does relinquishment affect moral rights? Moral rights, including the right to claim authorship and to object to distortion of the work, sit separately from the economic rights and are not simply extinguished by relinquishment.
Can relinquishment be reversed? The rights cease from the date of the notice. There is no simple mechanism to recall them, which is why the decision deserves care.
What is the difference between relinquishment and putting a work in the public domain? Relinquishment is the formal statutory route in India. Informally declaring a work public domain has no defined status under the Act, which is a reason to use the statutory process or an established open licence rather than an informal statement.
Is relinquishment the same as assignment for no consideration? No. Assignment transfers rights to a named person. Relinquishment surrenders them without transferring them to anyone.
Useful official resources
- Copyright Office, India — Form I and filing details
- Copyright Act, 1957 — Section 21
Considering relinquishment? Talk to us first. In most cases an open licence achieves what people actually want without giving up the rights permanently.