The draft copyright policies launched for public comment in advance this week constitute a high-quality first in Indian copyright policy: an explicit articulation, even though very short, of the needs of the virtual technology. The Department for Promotion of Internal Investment and Trade (DPI) has rightly cited the need “to make certain easy and perfect compliance of the Copyright Act in the light of technological advancement.” Refreshing as this could sound, it is also a tad too overdue and disappointing, considering that the tremendous modification to the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 (“ICA”) changed into made in 2012 not like in the US and the EU in where copyright responses to the “internet threat” were fashioned in the past due nineties.
The 2012 Amendment introduced a set of intermediary safe harbors for internet carrier companies and user-generated content platforms; however, without a holistic dialogue of what the virtual era realistically required to incentivize content material production. I could characterize this change as an opportunity misplaced in the din of dispensing the revenue pie among content creators and producers, while the real consciousness should be on growing the content material pie in a digital setting.
In this regard, reviews over the past decade reveal the transition of the content economy into a content material plus revel in the financial system. What is genuinely powering Spotify and Netflix nowadays is as many behavioral and experiential statistics factors on customers because of the unique content they offer. These content players are not the best working “over the top” of the net pipes and legacy content material. Therefore, to propel greater innovation in this domain, limitless content access, though laced with fairness and remunerative fairness amongst numerous stakeholders, is crucial.
This direction raises deeper questions regarding the asset’s shape of copyright exclusions and their relevance in digital putting. Mindful of these dimensions, the proposed rules are looking to take away the judicial basis of a current verdict of the Bombay High Court and beautify the licensing possibilities for content get right of entry to. This is a superb policy pass, and one constant with the legislative choice made via the insertion of Section 31D of the ICA in 2012 — a provision that permits the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) to fix fees of royalty and lets in broadcasting enterprises to avail statutory licenses from content proprietors at those pre-constant fees instead of leaving matters to the vagaries of negotiation.
