Proposed Copyright Amendment Bill

In the recent past, there have been a proposed set of amendments to the Copyright Act, which however, seem to be having a little trouble getting beyond the draft bill stage. While not much progress has occurred after this initial draft bill stage, the proposed amendments themselves are quite noteworthy. Indeed, back in 2006, there appears to be a response by ALF and a group of other NGOs to the HRD ministry with regard to certain proposed amendments. The draft bill as it stands today, was available on the http://www.copyright.gov.in website till the recent update (posted about in this previous post) of the site. While the site is much improved in most aspects, these proposed amendments strangely seem to have just disappeared off the site now. The Indian Express and the TOI have mentioned that these amendments are finally up for discussion before the ministry, however it does not seem possible to locate an actual copy of this currently. As well intentioned as these provisions may be, it is rather lacking in terms of transparency that these are now not available for the public.

Moving on to the substance of these proposed amendments, the HRD ministry seeks to provide for a more balanced regime in terms of rights distribution among ‘creators’ through this bill. It seeks to ensure that all the ‘creative artists’ involved in a work, such as the singers, lyricists, music directors, film directors, etc receive more appropriate royalty for their work. This comes as a very welcome move for artists, especially singers and directors, who have been calling for a new royalty payment system for a long time now. In fact, the Indian Express reports that these proposed amendments came after a complaint from the likes of Javed Akhtar, Shubha Mudgal and Jagjit Singh among others, to the Prime Minister, regarding the loss of all rights after the standard practice of assigning rights to the producer.

The bill also refers to non-assignable rights such as ‘moral rights’ and ‘the right of integrity’. The right of integrity goes towards ensuring that the reputation of an artist does not get tainted by giving him the right to prevent others from doing something to his work that can damage his reputation and name, thus preventing distortion and mutilation of work. Along similar lines, the amendments also talk about remixes and cover versions of songs. It says that the provisions should not go so far as to prohibit, or through unnecessarily stringent provisions, effectively prohibit / restrict remixes altogether.

In addition, the period of protection of copyrighted work is to be extended from 60 years to 70 years on the condition that the producer shares royalty with the director as well. Another important provision is the removal of all copyright fees which arise from allowing access, through means of conversion of works, to all categories of disabled people.

It is to be seen however, in the final bill (which will hopefully be made available to the public before it is passed), if the balance between protecting a creator’s interest and protecting the public’s interest is maintained, since it should be kept in mind, that broadly speaking, easier access to creative works has generally resulted in more creation.