The Indian Express reports that the controversial amendment to Section 2(m) of the Indian Copyright Act may not be incorporated after all. We have blogged about this issue several times previously here, here and here.
The report states that ‘the Union HRD Ministry may drop the clause for now and instead initiate a study on the impact that the amendment can have on the Indian publishing industry‘.
Whether this is a product of lobbying on the part of the publishers, or a case of ‘numbers’ being provided to provide a breakthrough to reason is anybody’s guess. Either way, the Bill appears set to reach the cabinet sans the Section 2(m) amendment.
Mr. Sibal, the Minister, faces a conflict of interest in the case of these amendments as he has recently published his first book:
http://www.rolibooks.com/indiaink/fiction/-/i-witness-partial-observations/
He should recuse himself from the matter.