In a guest post, Karan Dhalla argues that Tips Industries v Wynk Music, which held that the statutory licensing scheme under Section 31D of the Copyright Act 1957, was wrongly decided for three reasons. First, he suggests that Section 31D does not discriminate between different mediums of broadcast because both Section 31D(1) and Section 2(dd) are clear and unambiguous, and sweeping in their scope. Second, he posits that Section 31D(1) is the operative portion of the provision, and the remaining…

Prashant analysed the challenges highlighted by a recent report released by the Indian Music Industry (IMI) and Deloitte: (i) Music Piracy:  He states that it is not very relevant in a day and age where everyone has free access to music if s/he has access to the internet. (ii) Value-gap: He agrees with the report’s stance on the issue of value-gap due to legislative measures such as: (1) Section 31D of the Copyright Act, which allows the radio and television industry to…

This week, Divij Joshi wrote on the TikTok and ShareChat dispute, where TikTok served the latter with takedown notices, claiming it had ‘exclusivity’ over the content. Subsequently, ShareChat wrote to the Government, asking it to clarify whether TikTok is an intermediary, under Section 79 of the IT Act. To this effect, Divij asks a pertinent question—‘whether TikTok’s claims of ownership or ‘exclusivity’ over certain content on its platform change its status as an intermediary qualified for the exemptions under Section…