Delhi HC refuses to entertain Archie's plea over copyright

The Delhi High Court has refused to entertain New York-based Archie Comic's petition over copyright violations in the country, citing lack of jurisdiction as the company does not have an office in India.

A bench headed by Justices Vikramajit Sen and Mukta Gupta, while rejecting the plea of the international company, said that the court has no jurisdiction to entertain the plea of the firm.

"On merits in the present case, as discussed above, even taking the pleadings and documents annexed thereto by way of amendment, this Court has no territorial jurisdiction to entertain the plaint," the court said.

The order of the court came over a petition of Archie Comic Publications challenging the use of mark 'ARCHIES' by Mumbai based Purple Creations.

The US firm submitted that this court has jurisdiction to try and entertain its plea as it is carrying on business in Delhi since 1979 and its comics are imported by Variety Book Depot in the city.

Full report here Deccan Herald

Digital dimensions

Will you be hauled up for making personal copies of your favourite paid-for downloads, or for converting them to different formats for private use, under the provisions of the proposed Copyright Amendment Bill? The answer is no. Can you move your books from your Kindle to an iPad or another digital book device? Yes, you can. That’s because the provisions in the amended Bill do not make it illegal to break Digital Rights Management (DRM) as long as you are not violating copyright i.e. making copies for commercial exploitation. Simply put, DRM is the tool used by hardware manufacturers, publishers and copyright holders to control the access — by blocking copying and conversion to other formats — an end-user has to a digital product. It has been a hotly-contested issue world over, with consumers arguing that it allows record, movie and software companies and digital device makers to create a virtual monopoly by restricting the access rights of even a legitimate buyer of a music CD, movie DVD, digital books or computer games.

For instance, in countries like the US, UK, and in the EU, an iPod user cannot transfer songs procured through iTunes — which she has legally paid for and downloaded — to another mp3 device because of encrypted technological barriers, and breaking these codes to make personal copies is illegal. The zone coding of movie DVDs is another example of how DRM limits how and where you can watch a movie that you have paid for: you cannot play a zone 2 DVD on a zone 1 player and vice versa. Critics of the DRM regime are plenty and they’re not just irate consumers . Back in 2007, even Steve Jobs, in an open letter on his company’s website, called for the abolition of DRMs, arguing that they had done precious little to check piracy.

Full report here Times of India

Open your eyes

The copyright law is to be amended but this won’t help the disabled. V. Kumara Swamy reports

Yogender Kumar likes to “listen” to books. For the visually challenged postgraduate student of Delhi University, this is a daily habit. “There were very few books in Braille — at least not the ones I wanted to read,” he says, talking about his school and college days. Then he got to know about audio books — books that could be heard on a tape, a CD or on the Internet. That’s how he explored the works of his favourite author, Munshi Premchand.

Kumar and his friends have found another way to listen to their favourite books as well as college notes. “We simply ask our non-blind friends to record them for us. In some cases electronically available books are converted into audio formats,” he says.

But an amendment (Copyright Amendment Bill, 2010) to the Copyright Act, 1957, may put an end to Kumar and his friends’ innovative ways of seeking knowledge.

Full report here Telegraph

Govt mulling Broadcasting Authority of India

Even as the government is holding discussions with broadcasters for building consensus on content regulation on television, it is also mulling the formation of a Broadcasting Authority of India, which would address broadcast related issues.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni said in Delhi on may 3 that, "While content regulation is a subject on which the government has been holding discussions with broadcasters, we are looking at setting up an authority for addressing issues related to broadcasting... like the roll-out of third phase of FM radio stations, FDI in the broadcasting sector and the proposed amendments to be effected in the Press and Registration of Books (PRB) Act 1867".

Soni said the authority could be named Broadcasting Authority of India.

Full report here PTI

A new journey into the virtual world

Globalization and digitization are the two dominant trends that have changed the face of book publishing in the last decade. They are interlinked because of the rapid advance in communications and computer technologies. Now we learn that Google will make millions of digitized books from research libraries, hitherto not easily accessed, available to readers for a fee. These include out-of-copyright books (whose authors have died more than 50 years ago) as well as those recently published. Whether copyrighted books should be put online is still sub judice in the American courts, but if the issue is settled in favour of Google, the latter could become the largest library and book-selling business the world has ever known.

Some questions arise. Will large distributors accept digitized books at the expense of traditional printed books to make Google’s attempt a success? What are its implications for book publishers and authors? Would they stand to gain financially with digitized books that could replace the traditional print format or supplement it? Moreover, would readers get digitized books at lower prices, if you factor in the cost of the computer hardware/iPad and other hand-held devices that would be required to read the digital text and the fees that would need to be paid to the publisher for accessing it?

Full report here Telegraph

The plot thickens

Scriptwriters are a beleaguered lot in the Hindi film industry. They’re underpaid, often denied credit and rarely allowed to own copyright to their work. Film-maker Sriram Raghavan quotes his brother and fellow writer Sridhar to describe the writer’s position in the pecking order: ‘They say the script is the backbone of the film but the writer is mostly treated like a toenail.’

As the recent controversy surrounding the amendment to the Copyright Act has shown, it’s going to take a while before writers are elevated from toenail to tailbone. In the meantime, young writers have a leg up to look forward to. Over the past three years, there have been a few script labs in which writers are mentored by experienced hands. These are fairly common abroad, especially during film festivals. The Sundance Film Festival has a prestigious Screenwriters Lab; in 2005, Meera Nair started Maisha, a lab in Kampala for writers from a few African countries and the Indian subcontinent.

According to scriptwriter Anjum Rajabali (Ghulam, The Legend Of Bhagat Singh) mentoring writers is important, as the practice of screenplay writing in India is not as rigorous as it should be. Rajabali, who heads the scriptwriting department at Whistling Woods, has been a mentor at several labs—he participated in Maisha, at the NFDC Script Development Workshop in Goa in 2007 and Sankalan, a lab organised by NGO Baiscope and Mahindra Media and Entertainment Business in 2008 in Mumbai. A lot of his advice, he says, involves the basics of scriptwriting and “honing one’s intuition’’. Sriram Raghavan (Ek Hasina Thi, Johnny Gaddar), who was a fellow mentor at Sankalan, insists that writers must choose the right subject. “Does your story have the potential to be an interesting and unique film?’’ he says. “Writing is fun but it’s also tough and lonely. So the writer must have the patience and enthusiasm to live with the subject for months, sometimes years before it’s actually made into a film."

Full report here Times of India

Government invites suggestions on amendments to copyright act

The Government of India has invited suggestions/comments from all stakeholders in respect of the proposed amendments to the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867.  The draft amendments have been put on Registrar of Newspapers for India’s (RNI) website, www.rni.nic.in and also on the website of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, www.mib.nic.in.  Besides, RNI has also written to various newspaper associations separately inviting suggestions on the proposed amendments.

The PRB Act enacted in the year 1867 has undergone little change, through amendments, in the last 142 years.  On the other hand, the print media has grown exponentially over the years.  The Government has also allowed news syndication, FDI and Facsimile editions of foreign newspapers.  In view of the developments, it is felt necessary to bring the Act in tune with the changing times, as the Act in its present form is inadequate to address the requirements of the print media.

Suggestions can be sent to the Registrar of Newspapers for India, West Block-8, Wing-2, R.K. Puram, New Delhi – 110 066, superscribing the envelop with “PRB Act suggestions” latest by March 3, 2010.

Grey areas in India’s Copyright Act!

In the capital, HRD minister Kapil Sibal who had hogged the limelight for proactively following a reform agenda for the Indian education system, did not want a controversy to erupt when the entire copyright issue was to be taken up during the current Budget session. While distancing himself from the row, Sibal made it clear that it was not a government-appointed panel but an unofficial expert group who understands the nuances of the copyright issues of film business better than anyone else. Yet, the minister made a sincere bid and turned successful in bringing back Aamir to the task. It was important to wrap up the long-standing issue that would ensure Bollywood’s creative brigade receiving a better share of the growing pie of film revenue.

For Mumbai’s film industry’s backroom boys, the issue was far more than just a dramatic news headline of an altercation between two well-known cine personalities followed by an upset Aamir sending his resignation. After all, any delay in finalising the proposed amendment of the Copyright Act would have meant a longer wait for them to get their due.

Why then did Aamir Khan who is known to stand by the creative force in film industry, get upset thereby jeopardising the entire process of redressal? As was reported in the media, problems cropped up on the issue of what should be the rights of lyricists after the amendment of the Act came into force. In his resignation letter from the 10-member panel, Aamir wrote that there was an attempt by certain people to attack him in public by printing lies, thus turning the attention away from core copyright issues.

Full report here Economic Times 

Aamir Khan withdraws resignation from copyright panel

Bollywood actor Aamir Khan on Friday withdrew his resignation from a committee set up to discuss amendments to the Copyrights Act, just days after he quit citing incorrect media reports.

"Aamir has given a lot of thought to the request to take back his resignation and be a part of the committee … Aamir has decided to take back his resignation," a message from the actor's office said.

The message also said that Khan had read a letter submitted by other members of the committee reiterating their faith in him. On Tuesday, Khan sent a letter to Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal saying he was "disillusioned and sad" by media reports which he claimed showed him in a bad light.

Full report here  Reuters

Asia in war of words over Google Books

Much has been made already about Google's book digitization project, which aims to scan and digitize almost all books published worldwide, making them searchable online. But as this ambitious yet equally controversial project prepares for a crucial hearing in a United States court on February 18, the global crusade against Google Books is intensifying.

Following stiff opposition from publishers and authors from primarily the Western world, India, too, threw down the gauntlet this month when 15 Indian authors and publishers filed objections with a New York District Court. With this, India became the second - after China - country in Asia to red-pencil the Google Book plan.

However, libraries, copyright holders and countries like the US, France, Britain, Germany, Canada and Australia and even consumers are analyzing the ramifications of this audacious venture. Many are unsure whether Google's promise of a global digital library will really change the face of information access in the world. Or will it be the end of the 150 year-old concept of copyright and intellectual property rights? In 2004, Google began scanning millions of books under copyright protection by reaching an agreement with several universities in the US. Under the initiative, known as the Google Library Project, Google digitized snippets from these books and put them online.

Full report here Asia Times

Stop interfering, Aamir: Javed Akhtar

It was a meeting meant to sort out the imbroglio between film producers and lyricists-writers, the latter’s forum represented by Javed Akhtar .

But matters came to a sticky head when Aamir Khan, siding with film producers, suggested that lyricists don’t really contribute much to the impact of a song. It was just too much for the legendary poet-lyricist Javed Akhtar to take, and it soon became a war of words between him and Aamir.

Says an eyewitness, “Aamir made it clear that he felt a song becomes a hit because it is picturised on a big star. To this Javed saab asked him, ‘Your first big song was Papa kehte hain. Did it make you a star or did you make that a song run?’” Temperatures in the room started rising, but Aamir stuck to his stand.

“When Aamir again insisted that it’s the star who makes a bigger contribution to a song becoming a hit, Javed retorted, ‘Your so-called contribution is nothing but interference. We lyricists would be eternally grateful if you keep your so-called contribution to yourself. We manage to do good work not because of, but in spite of your contribution.' "

Full report here Times of India

Related news
Aamir Khan at war with Javed Akhtar Bollywood Mantra

Aamir Khan resigns from Copyright Act panel

Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan has resigned from the 10-member committee set up by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal to review the proposed amendments in Copyright Act following differences with some members.

"It seems to me that there is an attempt by certain people to attack me in public by printing lies about me, thereby turning the attention away from a genuine debate about copyright issues," the 44-year-old actor said in the letter to Sibal.

The actor's decision comes after he reportedly had heated exchanges with lyricist Javed Akhtar and others over the issue of royalties in a meeting between producers and writers.

Full report here PTI

Related news
Aamir Khan resigns from Copyright Act panel Reuters
Miffed Aamir quits copyright panel NDTV.com
Aamir Khan resigns from Copyright Act panel Economic Times
Aamir stung by criticism Times of India

Are books on google good for us?

Santosh Desai holds forth on the latest contoversy in The Financial Express.

The recent court action that a group of 15 Indian authors and publishers have initiated against Google Books raises some interesting issues. The court action is a reflection of the concern felt by a large section of the Indian publishing industry about what they see as a concerted effort by the company to subvert copyright laws in India. In particular, what has caused great consternation is the ‘opt out’ clause, which places the burden of objection on the author. This essentially means that Google Books is free to scan anything it feels like, and unless the author objects, this lack of overt reaction is deemed to be a form of consent, allowing the company to go ahead.

Full text here

Indian authors, publishers take Google to court

Google has caught Indian authors and publishers on the wrong foot, according to a report in the Business Line.

According to the report, some Indian publishers and authors are up in arms against Google Book Settlement (GBS 2.0) for what it calls a blatant violation of Indian and international copyright laws.Google Book Search Project allows books to be made available on the Web. Over seven million books have been scanned by Google. Google Book Settlement allows authors and other copyright holders of out-of-print books to submit a claim to participate in settlements.

Indian authors and publishers, including Star Publications, Abhinav Publications, Daya Publication House and Pustak Mahal along with the Indian Reprographic Rights Organisation and Federation of Indian Publishers, have approached the New York District Court. Mr Siddharth Arya, legal counsel for IRRO, said: “The Google Book Settlement is contrary to every international treaty that governs copyright laws. Google's unilateral conduct is a brazen attempt to turn copyright law on its head, by usurping the exclusive rights of the copyright holder.”

More on the report here