Copyright Act has been in news due to the recent controvery where Actor-filmmaker Dhanush filed a civil suit against actor Nayanthara, her filmmaker husband Vignesh Shivan, and their company Rowdy Pictures Private Limited. Photo: IE Tamil)The recent news of the Dhanush-Nayanthara clash has brought the Copyright Act into the spotlight. What is the Copyright Act? What are the Performer’s Rights? Take a look at the essential concepts, terms, quotes, or phenomena every day and brush up your knowledge. Here’s your knowledge nugget for today.
(Relevance: Intellectual Property Rights form an important part of the UPSC syllabus. In 2017, a Prelims question was asked on the ‘National Intellectual Property Rights Policy.’ Similarly, a question was asked about the difference between a trademark and a geographical indicator. In 2014, a UPSC Mains question required distinguishing between the terms Copyrights, Patents, and Trade Secrets. Therefore, it is important to know about the Copyright Act.)
On November 16, Nayanthara posted a three-page “open letter” on her Instagram account, addressed to her colleague Dhanush K Raja. Nayanthara was reacting to a legal notice from Dhanush demanding Rs 10 crore for the use of a three-second behind-the-scenes (BTS) clip from the sets of Naanum Rowdy Dhaan (2015) in the Netflix documentary. According to Wunderbar, the Dhanush co-owned production house behind Naanum Rowdy Dhaan, the use of this footage “clearly violates the copyrights of the applicant”, and has caused “irreparable loss” following the worldwide release of the documentary.
1. Under the Copyright Act, 1957, the “author” of a work has a bundle of legal rights including the right to reproduce, issue copies, perform, adapt, or translate the work in question. Upon the death of the author, the ownership of the copyright falls to her legal heirs. Under Section 18 however, the author can “assign” the copyright “wholly or partially” to anyone she pleases, in return for compensation. The Act aims to safeguard creative works considered to be a creator’s intellectual property.
2. In this case, the court will have to see if the agreements signed by Nayanthara or Vignesh Shivan include an assignment of copyright of any videos, photos or other works created on the set of Naanum Rowdy Dhaan, and determine if the agreement would cover BTS footage taken on personal devices.
3. One defense would be the de minimis doctrine, an abbreviated version of the legal maxim de minimis non curat lex which translates to “the law does not concern itself with trifles”. As the Delhi High Court stated in a 2012 decision, “To put it simply. The maxim basically means that law will not resolve petty or unimportant disputes”. This doctrine was applied in the case of India TV Independent News Service vs Yash Raj Films.
4. The law provides protection to the transformative work which is a creative/ artistic work that takes existing material (text, music, art) and significantly modifies, reinterprets, or builds upon it to create something new and distinct. For example, the comedy group AIB’s 2015 spoof video ‘Every Bollywood Party song’ starring the late actor Irrfan, was a parody of rapper Yo Yo Honey Singh’s ‘Party all night’, and it would not amount to infringement as it can be termed as inspired work.
5. According to the copyright law, no exclusive intellectual property rights apply to creative works in the public domain. So, the Old Testament and New Testament, or the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, one of the most widely used translations of the Bible, are not protected by copyright. Similarly, the Ramayana and Mahabharata are not protected by copyright, but the television series Ramayana created by Ramanand Sagar or B R Chopra’s Mahabharata are “transformative works” that are protected.
6. Copyright infringement: A copyrighted work will be considered “infringed” only if a substantial part is made use of without authorisation. In cases of infringement, the copyright owner can take legal action against any person who infringes on or violates their copyright and is entitled to remedies such as injunctions, damages, and accounts. An injunction is “an official order given by a law court, usually to stop someone from doing something.”
7. Section 52 lists acts that don’t constitute infringement, even in cases where one has a copyright over the work. Section 52(1)(a) exempts “a fair dealing with any work” from being termed “infringement” if it’s for private or personal use, like research, criticism or review, or reporting of current events and affairs.
8. Similarly, Section 52(1)(h) exempts the publication of short passages from published literary or dramatic works in a collection intended for bona fide or genuine instructional use.
In December 2020, the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) fixed royalties for radio broadcasts at 2% of the Net Advertisement Revenues. (Representational)
1. In 2023, the Bombay High Court ruled that FM radio channels cannot use copyrighted music without paying royalties to composers and lyricists.
2. Section 38 of the Copyright Act, 1957, as amended in 2012, recognises “Performer’s Rights” of the Singer of a commercially recorded song for 50 years from the “beginning of the calendar year next following the year in which the performance is made”. During this period, the performance, or “a substantial part thereof”, cannot be recorded, reproduced, broadcast or communicated without the Perfomer’s consent.
3. Performers (which includes Singers) have the Right to Receive Royalty (R3) in case their performances are commercially utilised. While a Singer can sign over the rights to a song to a producer/third party, R3 for the song cannot be given over. This means that once a Singer has recorded an original song, everyone except the producer/copyright holder needs to get permission and pay royalty to play/perform it in public.
4. The objective of the amendment was to protect artists. For example, if the copyright of a song is licensed, it would not just be the producer who would get a royalty but the singer and lyricist would also be entitled to a share.
5. Under Section 39 of the amended Copyright Act, the Performer’s Right is not infringed only in cases of private use, teaching and research.
(Source: Why Dhanush is suing ‘Lady Superstar’ Nayanthara, Scriptures may be copyright-free, but adaptations are protected, Humans of Bombay vs People of India)
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