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August 19, 2021

Summary: ‘Review Of The Intellectual Property Rights Regime In India (Parliamentary Standing Committee Report No. 161) – Section On Copyrights Act, 1957, (pp: 64-69)’ (Parliamentary Standing Committee On Commerce)

Author: Intern - Nehal Gupta

The Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce under the chairmanship of Mr. V. Vijayasai presented a report titled, “161st Report: Review of the Intellectual Property Rights Regime in India” (“the Report”) in Rajya Sabha on 23rd July, 2021. This comprehensive report proposes major changes to the current IPR Regime by addressing awareness initiatives, amendments to the current IP legislations, active involvement of State Governments and re-assessment of the IPR Policy, 2016, etc.

The Report observes Section 52(1) of the Copyright Act, 1957 (“the Act”), which provides an exception and allows copying of the authored works, for reading and recitation in the public domain for use in educational institutions. The Report identifies that this Section may prove to be detrimental to the publishing industry/authors who majorly earn through their royalties. Taking note of this, the Report suggests facilitation of fair and equitable procedure by the way of amending Section 51(1) to permit reprographic works in Government-owned educational institutions and storing it in libraries for easy access and allowing limitations to unrestricted commercial grants to copy literary work and storing them in digital formats.

The Report promotes the implementation of the Central Government initiative of National Mission on Library which allows affordable accessibility to students and academicians via community libraries while simultaneously protecting rights of the author.

The Report guides the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (“DPIIT”) to look into the provisions of Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works for any exceptions to the Copyrights. The report observes that this would prove beneficial to the copyright holders and the public alike.

The Report further suggests some modifications to the Act. The report recommends to increase the renewal time of Copyright Societies from 5 to 10 years under Section 33(A) in order to reduce the administrative burden and the long delays in renewal.

Along with this, the Report notes the rising digital or Over the Top (“OTT”) platforms which contributes widely to the economy. According to the report, India would be the tenth largest market globally with around 805 million internet subscribers by 2022. This is recognized as a need to include these OTT platforms under the benefit of statutory license along with traditional broadcasters. In furtherance of this, the Report suggests amendment to Section 31D of the Act to incorporate ‘internet or digital broadcasters’ under statutory license. The Report observes that this would ensure balance between the interests of traditional and internet broadcasters alike.

The Report can be accessed here:

https://rajyasabha.nic.in/rsnew/Committee_site/Committee_File/ReportFile/13/141/161_2021_7_15.pdf

Disclaimer: Views, opinions, interpretations are solely those of the author, not of the firm (ALG India Law Offices LLP) nor reflective thereof. Author submissions are not checked for plagiarism or any other aspect before being posted.

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