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The author of a work is generally considered as the first owner of the copyright under the Copyright Act 1957. However, for works made in the course of an author’s employment under a “contract of service” or apprenticeship, the employer is considered as the first owner of copyright, in the absence of any agreement to the contrary.

The concept of joint authorship is recognised in Section. 2(z) of the Act which provides that “a work produced by the collaboration of two or more authors in which the contribution of one author is not distinct from the contribution of the other author or authors” is a work of joint authorship. This concept has been elucidated in cases like Najma Heptulla v. Orient Longman Ltd. and Ors.

Section 19 of the Copyright Act 1957 lays down the modes of assignment of copyright in India. Assignment can only be in writing and must specify the work, the period of assignment and the territory for which assignment is made. If the period of assignment is not specified in the agreement, it shall be deemed to be 5 years and if the territorial extent of assignment is not specified, it shall be presumed to be limited to the territories of India. In a recent judgement (Pine Labs Private Limited vs Gemalto Terminals India Limited), a division bench of the Delhi High Court confirmed this position and held that in cases wherein the duration of assignment is not specified, the duration shall be deemed to be five years and the copyright shall revert to the author after five years.

India follows a different approach towards copyright exceptions. India follows a hybrid approach that allows:

• fair dealing with any copyrighted work for certain specifically mentioned purposes and

• certain specific activities enumerated in the statute

the fair dealing approach followed in India is clearly limited towards the purposes of

1. private or personal use, including research, and education,
2. criticism or review,
3. reporting of current events and current affairs, including the reporting of a lecture delivered in public.

While the term fair dealing has not been defined anywhere in the Copyright Act 1957, the concept of ‘fair dealing’ has been discussed in different judgments, including the decision of the Supreme Court of India in Academy of General Education v. B. Malini Mallya (2009) and the decision of the High Court of Kerala in Civic Chandran v. Ammini Amma.  

The Copyright Act 1957 provides three kinds of remedies – administrative remedies, civil remedies and criminal remedies. The administrative remedies provided under the statute include detention of the infringing goods by the customs authorities. The civil remedies are provided under Chapter XII of the Copyright Act 1957 and the remedies provided include injunctions, damages and account of profits. The criminal remedies are provided under Chapter XIII of the statute and the remedies provided against copyright infringement include imprisonment (up to 3 years) along with a fine (up to 200,000 Rupees).