Subtitle - Another Movie?
A million droplets make an ocean, similarly a small judgement/order makes a great precedent. This order by the Hon’ble Bombay High Court, delivered on 28th September, 2019 pertaining to subtitles in movies, is one such droplet that will potentially open the floodgate for the entertainment and media law sector in India. Introduction A movie is the most classic way to express one’s emotions, feelings and sentiments. Everything is captured in one screen and within a fixed duration of time. A…
There’s no such thing as a free lunch (or is there?)
Copyright is a unique animal among the various types of intellectual property. Usually, copyright vests in a work as soon as it is created, and registration of a copyright is not mandatory to obtain some form of legal protection. It is this aspect of copyright that gives rise to various types of copyleft and permissive licenses of copyrighted works, because it gives the creator of a work rights over their work immediately upon creation. We have previously covered the concept of copyleft as…
The rewards of the commons – the Creative Commons licenses
The word “copyright” is a legal term which has become entrenched in everyday conversation because of its ubiquity and widespread use. Copyleft, on the other hand, is a more obscure term which refers to a particular type of copyright license. Broadly speaking, copyleft is a form of copyright protection which grants people the ability to modify and distribute copyrighted works (including for commercial purposes), under the stipulation that any such distributions or modifications are also covered…
The battle of the ‘JABARDASTH’ vs ‘BAND BAJA BAARAAT’
On July 8, 2019 The Delhi High Court decided that a copyright infringement occurs when there is no ‘Originality’ under Section 13(3)(a) and Section 2(d) of the Copyright Act, 1957. This is an essential feature for any right claiming copyright infringement, and was missing in the subject matter before the court. To decide this, reliance was placed on two other cases- R.G. Anand v. M/s Deluxe Films and Ors., (1978) 4 SCC 118 and MRF limited v. Metro Tyres Limited, CS (COMM) 753/2017. In this…
No Moral Rights over Destruction of a Work: Delhi High Court
In the world of construction, an architect holds a remarkable position. Generally, an architect is often subjected to resentment, and faces multiple disputes when he or she tries to balance between the builders and the owners of the building. An architect quite often turns to be the ultimate decision maker on any project, a question then arises would that give, the architect, as the creator and legal ‘author’ of a building a ‘right to object’ to the modification or destruction of their work by…
The Case of Dynamic Injunction
In a recent judgement (UTV & Ors. vs. 1337x.to & Ors.), the Delhi High Court set a precedent by issuing India’s first-ever ‘dynamic injunction’ against websites who were deemed to be infringing upon the rights of copyright holders. Under this remedy, if the Plaintiffs are made aware that an infringing website has resurfaced under a different name, they can simply approach the Joint Registrar of the Delhi High Court to extend an existing injunction against the new website rather than…
A Guide to registration of Copyrights- Cinematograph Films
The objective of this guide is to lay down comprehensive and definitive guidelines for examination and registration of works falling under the category of cinematograph film. Firstly, before laying down the procedure for registration of cinematograph films we need to understand as to what constitutes a cinematograph film. Definitions Section 2(f) gives us the clear meaning of a cinematograph film. A cinematograph film means “any work of visual recording and includes a sound recording…