Copyright Law Archives

Indian Copyright Law and Fair dealing

The concept of fair dealing is statutorily entrenched in Section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. What fair dealing does is that it permits certain acts with respect to copyrighted works, which otherwise would have constituted as infringement. The concept of fair dealing found in the UK copyright law as well as the Indian copyright law, is much more restrictive that its US counterpart, fair use. While the Indian law provides a specific list of fair dealing acts and purposes,…

November 16, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Copyrights, Intellectual Property 0Comment 1464Views 0Like

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Statutory Licensing for Broadcasting Organisations

The objective of non–voluntary licensing is two-fold. First, to overcome the difficulty of locating the correct owner of the copyrighted work and getting an individual license from him and second is to avoid the creation of monopoly of copyright owners. The result the state looks at achieving from this provision is ensuring public dissemination and authors' compensation and avoiding market monopoly. The Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2012 has incorporated a new section into Chapter VI of the Copyright Act, which…

November 16, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Copyrights, Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law 0Comment 818Views 0Like

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Movie making – A tale of woes.

“We don’t make movies to make money; we make money to make more movies.” - Walt Disney Movie Producers or Movie Production houses are often referred to as money making machines, but where there are riches; there are also a multitude of woes. In this post, we speak about some of the legal challenges that movie producers often face. Keeping in mind that it is always easier to list the problems than to find the solutions to them, we have jotted…

November 9, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law 0Comment 659Views 0Like

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Essential Agreements for every Movie Producer

Production of a Cinematographic film demands a lot of time and resources. Since, all of the financial resources are invested by the Producer, copyright law has recognized the Producer as the author of the cinematographic film, even though a cinematographic film is an amalgamation of several works that are entitled for independent copyright protection. The fact that a cinematographic film is created by the combination of several independently copyrightable works, makes it all the more important for a Producer to…

November 9, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law 0Comment 1189Views 0Like

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Performer’s Right under Indian Copyright Law- Part I

The visual or acoustic performances of actors, musicians, singers or dancers forms a key part of the creative process and the performers who display their talents through their artistic performances must be entitled for certain rights over such performances as well as a share in the proceeds from its commercial exploitation. However, the rights of the performers were not recognized internationally until the adoption of the Rome Convention of 1961. This international treaty called for protection against unauthorized broadcast of…

November 2, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Copyrights, Intellectual Property, IP Commercialization/Licensing 0Comment 3544Views 0Like

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Big victory for Big Pimpin’

“Big Pimpin”, Jay Z’s chart topping rap number had been at the center of a longstanding copyright lawsuit. The law suit was initially filed in 2007 by Osama Fahmy, nephew of Egyptian composer Baligh Hamdi, whose song ‘Khosara Khosara’ was partially featured in the 2000 hit. Last week the US District Court in Los Angeles ruled that Mr. Fahmy ‘lacked the standing' for his copyright lawsuit against both Jay Z (Shawn Carter) and producer Timbaland (Timothy Mosley). A flute riff…

October 26, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Copyrights, Intellectual Property 0Comment 780Views 0Like

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Let’s Go Crazy – Is the Copyright Ruling Fair?

Stephanie Lenz uploaded a video of her child dancing to Prince's tune - Let's Go Crazy, to YouTube. In the video, the child is seen making moves, while the song is played in the background. The video was uploaded in 2007 on YouTube. Universal Music, the owner of the sound recording, was not too happy with the use of the music in the video, which was getting great attention. UM sent a DMCA take down notice to YouTube, and YouTube…

September 16, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Copyrights, Intellectual Property 0Comment 856Views 0Like

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Did China Copy Disney’s famous track?

The lack of snow for the 2022 Winter Olympics, is not the only reason why China is facing criticism. The recent controversy faced by the Chinese is with respect to the Official Song for the games, “The Snow and Ice Dance” which has raised some questions about its source. It has been noticed by keen listeners that the song sounds like a rip-off of “Let It Go,” the popular ballad sung by Idina Menzel . “Let it Go” rose to prominence, as…

August 6, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Copyrights, Intellectual Property 0Comment 713Views 0Like

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Thou shall not re-tweet!

Dennis Flaherty, an American photographer is suing the beverage manufacturer Big Red Inc. for using his copyrighted photograph of Fort Alamo at night, in a social media marketing campaign. Well, this doesn’t seem out place, right? Companies making unauthorized use of a copyrighted work should be held responsible, and in many cases they are. But what if I were to say that Mr. Flaherty is not just suing Big Red, its employees and affiliates but also every other person who…

July 22, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Copyrights, Intellectual Property 0Comment 706Views 0Like

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Copyright V. Privacy – Flash, Airtel, GitHub and Tejesh

Tejesh, based out of Bangalore, had allegedly discovered that browsing on Airtel's 3G network was being slowed down by code that helps Airtel generate revenue from data services offered by the telecom service provider. After making the discovery, Tejesh posted the code along with screen shots on Git Hub. In response, Flash Networks, the owner of the code sent a cease and desist notice to Tejesh alleging copyright infringement. It also sent a DMCA take down notice to Git Hub,…