COPYRIGHT LAW IN INDIA
Indian English Writers started feeling the necessity of registration of
the work when they constantly faced plagiarism, whether it was music industry,
film production or literary work. It is a theft and rather a worse kind of
theft. The pain and agony of original, creator are beyond words. The thieves
are tactful, shameless and prepared for a long legal battle, being rich they
can afford it. The poor creature has already lost half the battle when his work
is stolen. He has to prove that he is the creator of his own masterpiece.
Every writer suffers from the trauma of apprehension that his work will be
stolen. Which is also not unreasonable. Though theoretically the copyright is
automatic as soon as the original work is created. But when you will fight a
legal battle it would not be enough to say so. All over the world, there was
concern over growing plagiarism so when Berne Convention, which started in 1886
was revised from time to time and is now applicable in 162 countries out of roughly
190 countries and protects literary and artistic rights of creators resident of
any of these countries.
There are lots of legal complications when any controversy arises. Like in
famous trial of "Three idiots" it was established that even if the
economic rights are assigned away (and in this case, Bhagat assigned away his
rights to any movie based on the book), the moral rights continue to vest in
the author. Though it is different issue how much of the "Five point
someone" was an original work, and what was the percentage of its
resemblance with the work " Snapshots from Hell" by Peter Robinson. I
personally think it was more than 3-5 %.
Government of India under Ministry of Human Resource Development has
opened an office which registers all kinds of intellectual properties. So if
you are a writer and have written a book, whether it is published or not you
can get a certificate of registration of your book. Never send your manuscripts
to a publisher without getting a copyright certificate. You can apply online
for registration on the following website
It is users friendly website. Though I had to exercise some patience, but
I was able to get the certificate for the manuscript of my novel based on Hindu Mythology "Apsara~Nina Bonita"
eBooks are not considered as published work.
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