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Divij Joshi

Divij Joshi is a lawyer and tinkers in technology and policy. He tweets @divij_joshi.

Copyright

Delhi High Court Rules that Moral Rights Offer No Remedy for Destruction of a Work

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Does an architect, as the creator and legal ‘author’ of a building having artistic significance, have the right to object to the modification or destruction of their work by the owner of the building? A recent judgement of the Delhi High Court answers this firmly in the negative. In Raj Rewal v Union of India and Ors., Mr. Justice Endlaw has comprehensively rejected the claim that an author’s moral rights over a building take precedence over the rights of the…


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Copyright Innovation

Breaking: Bombay High Court Rules against Statutory Licensing for Online Streaming Services

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A recent judgement of the Bombay High Court may have finally put to rest the convoluted saga of the applicability of the statutory licensing scheme under the Copyright Act to online streaming services. In a blow to online music services in India (looking at you, Spotify), in Tips Industries v Wynk Music, Mr. Justice Kathawalla has comprehensively rejected the claim that online streaming services are eligible for being granted statutory licenses for broadcasting under Section 31D of the Copyright Act….


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Innovation Others Patent

US Trade Representative Special 301 Report 2019: “Phir Ek Baar, Priority Watch List Ki Vaar”

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aka the Priority Watch List Strikes Again. For the 27th year in a row, India has made it to the infamous Priority Watch List in the Special 301 Report – an annual classification exercise by the office of the US Trade Representative, meant to put pressure on nations allegedly not complying with United States’ domestic standards for intellectual property protection. The list classifies certain countries as belonging to a ‘watch list’, or a ‘priority watch list’, and is meant to…


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Copyright

Breaking: Delhi High Court Issues India’s First ‘Dynamic’ Website Blocking Injunction for Copyright Infringement

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Online piracy, that bugbear of copyright owners, has received significant attention from courts in India and abroad, which hope to craft an elegant solution to protect rightsholders interests in a digital economy, who face inherent limitations considering the manner in which data sharing and information flows over the internet work. The Delhi High Court through its judgement in UTV v 1337x.to, delivered on April 10, has made a significant contribution to this jurisprudence in India, particularly by crafting a new…


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Copyright

From Betamax to Youtube – How Copyright Laws Have Impacted Innovation

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The Sony Betamax case may be familiar to some readers of this blog. The US Supreme Court ruling first elaborated the concept of ‘substantial non-infringing use’ as applied to the sale of technologies which could enable piracy or copyright infringement. In many ways, this ruling and the rationale behind it have been applied to subsequent technologies and regulations around these technologies – from p2p filesharing, to, most recently, online content hosting platforms. The Betamax and its history should be carefully…


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Copyright

Breaking: EU Adopts New Copyright Directive on the Digital Single Market

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The European Parliament has voted in the EU Copyright Directive for the Digital Single Market, 348-274. The vote followed high drama and widespread public mobilisation against the proposal, specifically on its impact on the rules for online platforms and user-generated content on the internet. The text of the directive has seen many iterations, but most of the objections to the directive focus on its rules regarding the responsibilities of online platforms which host user generated content, as well as the…


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Copyright Trademark

Draft E-Commerce Policy Extends India’s Intermediary Liability Woes

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It’s been a rough time for online intermediaries operating in India, lately. Jumping on the techlash bandwagon in the wake of multiple social media fiascos concerning online disinformation, data breaches, and mass propagation of hate speech and abuse, governments across the world are taking this as an opportunity to tighten regulation for online ‘intermediaries’ – platforms which host third party content, such as social media or online marketplaces. Similarly, the hornet’s nest of intermediary liability for copyright and trademark infringement…


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Copyright

Breaking: The Background Music to Spotify’s India Launch is a Crucial Legal Battle on Music Copyright

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It’s the one we’ve all been waiting for. Spotify, the Swedish music-streaming service, finally launched in India after months of speculation as to when and how the service would reach Indian consumers. Yet, an as yet unknown number of works in Spotify’s catalogue are in a precarious position, and could at any moment be pulled from the service. While we enjoy tunes from the world’s largest online streaming service, the background music to the launch is an intense legal battle…


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Copyright

Update: European Union Agrees on Copyright Directive Text, ‘Upload Filters’ and ‘Link Tax’ Closer to Becoming Internet Norms

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In a major development in the European Union with repercussions for the internet at large, the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and the European Commission on February 13, 2019, agreed upon the final text of the new EU Copyright Directive. While the text of the new rules has not yet been released, and they are yet to be officially confirmed by the parliament and council, a press release by the European Commission stated that a political agreement was…


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Copyright

SaReGaMa Pa-rdon Me, You Have the Wrong Address: On the Perils and Pitfalls of Notice and Takedown

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The universe surely has a strange sense of humour. Imagine our surprise when we received a notice from Google Inc., that they had de-indexed one of blogs after a complaint was filed against it by Saregama India Pvt. Ltd. On December 13, 2018, Google informed us that: “Google has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that some of the material found on your site allegedly infringes upon the copyrights of others. Although some…


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