Copyright and Public Interest

Copyright is a right given by the law to creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works and producers of cinematography films and sound recordings. In fact, it is a bundle of rights including, inter alia, rights of reproduction, communication to the public, adaptation and translation of the work. There could be slight variations in the composition of the rights depending on the work. The scope and duration of protection provided under copyright law varies with the nature of the protected work. These rights are creation of law. Copyright is transferable. First question how these rights are created. For copyright someone should create literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works and produce cinematographic films and artistic work originally. If work is not original then it can’t come under the ambit of copyright protection. Copyright gives protection to creation and production. In absence of this protection creator or producer will suffer financial loss. This type of works also have emotional and aesthetic values, they will feel cheated also. To promote and protect the creativity, it is necessary that rights of creators are properly protected. Copyright has one another limb also that many a time creator may not be the copyright holder, creator might have given copyright to somebody else. In absence of any protection from unauthorized use, these copyright holders other than owner will also suffer financial losses.If we say in other words copyright is right of a person who is holding these rights. These are personal rights. These rights denote personal interest. Now question arises how to balance copyright with public interest. Firstly it is necessary to understand Public Interest in this regard. In regard to copyright “Public Interest” means access of general person to literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works and cinematography films and sound recordings. Generally no copyright owner denies access to copyright material if he is given proper remuneration and his genuine conditions are fulfilled. But at times copyright holder may refuse to republish or allow the republication or have refused to allow the performance in public of the work which results in withholding from the public such copyrighted work and the members of the public suffer by such acts of the owner. It may happen, where the owners refuse to allow communication to the public by (Broadcast) of such work or in the case of (sound recording) the work recorded in such (sound recording) on terms which the complainant considers reasonable. A very strict application of the principle of protection of copyright hampers economic and cultural development of the society.In these situations it becomes very necessary to protect the “Public Interest” without violating rights of the Copyright holder. Subject to certain conditions, a fair deal for research, study, criticism, review and news reporting, as well as use of works in library and schools and in the legislatures, is permitted without specific permission of the copyright owners. In order to protect the interests of users, some exemptions have been prescribed in respect of specific uses of works enjoying copyright. Some of the exemptions are the uses of the worki.for the purpose of research or private study,ii.for criticism or review,iii.for reporting current events,iv.in connection with judicial proceeding,v.performance by an amateur club or society if the performance is given to a non-paying audience, andvi.the making of sound recordings of literary, dramatic or musical works under certain conditions.