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WHETHER COPYRIGHT CAN BE USED AS PROTECTION TOOL FOR CINEMATOGRAPHIC FLIM AND SOUND RECORDING

INTRODUCTION

Intellectual Property Rights are the legal rights that are granted to a person for any creative and artistic work, for any invention or discovery, or for any literary work or  words, phrases and symbols or designs for a stipulated period of time. The owners of  Intellectual Property are granted certain exclusive rights through which they use their   property without any disturbance disturbance and can prevent prevent the misuse of their property. property. The Copyright Copyright ct ct of !"!# was essential essentially ly an extension extension of the $ritish $ritish Copyright ct, !"!! which governed the country till independence. fter India%s  independence, the Copyright ct, !"&' came into force which has undergone several amen amendm dmen ents ts,, from from time time to time time to meet meet the the chal challe leng nges es po pose sed d by tech techno nolo logi gica call developments, the latest being the ()!( amendments. The term *copyright *copyright++ is not defined defined under the Indian Indian Copyright Copyright ct, ct, !"&' herei hereinaf nafter ter referr referred ed to as *Copyr *Copyrigh ightt ct+ct+-.. The genera generall connot connotati ation on of the term term copyright refers to the *right to copy+ which is available only to the author or the creator, as the case may be. Thus, any other person who copies the original work would be amount to infringement under the Copyright ct. Copyright ensures certain minimum safeguards of the rights of authors over their creations. Creativity being the keystone of   progress, no civilied society can afford to ignore the basic re/uirement of encouraging the same. 0conomic and social s ocial development of a society is dependent on creativity.

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The protection provided by copyright to the efforts of writers, artists, designers, dramatists, musicians, architects and producers of sound recordings, cinematograph films and computer software, creates an atmosphere conducive to creativity, which induces them to create more and motivates others to create. 1n the other hand, what is created by him2her cannot be claimed ownership for  generations all together as it might harm the social 3ustice. Therefore, a term of life plus sixty years years  is being adopted in India for the purpose of determining the period of 

copyright. This period may vary from country to country. If copyright protection is applied rigidly, it can hamper progress of the society. Therefore, copyright laws are enacted with necessary exceptions and limitations to ensure that a balance is maintained  between the interests interests of the creators and and of the community. community. Copyright in a work is considered as infringed only if a substantial part is used unauthoried. 4hat is 5substantial% varies from case to case. 6ore often than not, it is a matter of /uality rather than /uantity. 7or example, if a lyricist copy a very catching  phrase from another lyricist%s lyricist%s song, there is likely to be be infringement even if if that phrase is very very shor short. t. Th Thee best best exam exampl plee woul would d be *1h, *1h, Pret Pretty ty wome women+ n+ deal dealtt in the the case case of  Campbell Vs Acuff Ross Music Inc.

The copyright copyright law therefore, therefore, to strike strike a balance balance between between promoting promoting innovativeness amongst the creators and the interest of the general public has excluded a fair deal of works that is permitted without specific permission of the copyright owners. In order to protect the interests of users, some exemptions have been prescribed in respect of specific uses of works en3oying copyright such as research or private study, criticism or review, reporting of events, 3udicial proceeding, performance made before a non8  paying audience etc. etc. The most important criteria to determine whether the said article is copyrightable or not, is based on its originality .lso copyright can be only for things that are worth copying and not otherwise. 7or example, a baby scribing in a pad cannot be copyrighted. Copyright protects the expression and not the content or substance per se.

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Copyright also does not protect the titles per se or the names, word or a set of  words. $ut there can be exceptions based on the facts and circumstances of each case. 7or example, the actor 9hah Rukh :han has copyrights his name 9R:- and the music composer .R.Rahman copyrighted the title *;ai