NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF STUDY AND

RESEARCH IN LAW
2018

SYNOPSIS ON
INTELECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS-I
COPYRIGHT ISSUES IN ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Dr. M.R.S Murthy Ankita
Semester- VI
Roll- 556
Sec- B
COPYRIGHT ISSUES IN ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY
INTRODUCTION:

The importance of intellectual capital in wealth creation for an economy is of such great
significance that little needs to be said about it. It is correctly mooted that a nations
wealth/productivity indicators are linked to its intellectual capital rather than its GDP. Thus, the
protection and management of IPRs is of critical importance. Law being the cement of the
society and a primary instrument of social control, the legal regime in relation to IPR protection
is of significant importance.

Entertainment Industry is one of the booming sectors in the fast growing economy of India,
which has great potential to take global leadership position in the arena of entertainment. India is
the world’s most prolific film-making nation, with approximately 800 to 1,000 feature films
being produced each year by the ‘Bollywood’ film industry based in Mumbai. This is roughly
double the number of films produced by Hollywood each year. In 2009, a total of 1,288 films
were produced in India, in 24 different languages. By contrast, Hollywood produced 606 feature
films during 2008 – an all-time record for the American film industry. The scenario of the
industry is changing dramatically.

This is fuelled by various factors such as the spectacular growth of the television industry, the
new formats for film production and distribution, the privatization and growth of radio in the
country, the gradually liberalizing attitude of government towards the sector, easier access to and
for international companies, and the like. Michael J. Wolf in his book, The Entertainment
Economy, observes that “We are living in an entertainment economy, and entertainment — not
autos, steel or financial services — is fast becoming the engine of growth of the New Economy”.
Most organizations operating in FMCG, consumer durables and service industries have already
taken note of the new phenomenon and started developing programs that focus on such elements
as entertainment, surprise, amusement and indulgence to attract customers.

In many ways, non-entertainment companies have already begun to think on the lines of
entertainment companies and this has resulted in designing products and processes keeping in
mind the entertainment needs of customers. Under the new scenario, customers need to be
entertained, indulged, surprised, and amused. The service industries such as banks, airlines,
hotels, insurance companies etc. will have to design ‘entertainment-based value’ to ensure the
continued loyalty of customers to their offerings. It is thus not surprising that entertainment
content is fast becoming a key differentiator in every aspect of the consumer economy. It is
apparent that the customer wants entertainment in whatever he does, whether buying or
consuming. Thus, entertainment has now become an additional criterion for deciding what to buy
and from where to buy.

India has traditionally been a heavy consumer of films. Thus, the industry is growing rapidly and
this merits a look at all the aspects concerning this new factor that contributes largely to the
economy in more ways than one.

LITERATURE REVIEW:

ARTICLES:
Kimberly Amaral (2014): Digital imaging (a.k.a. electronic imaging, computer imaging, image
processing and image design) is at the root of this confusion. It allows just about anyone with a
scanner or digital camera, basic software, and a little training to manipulate photographs, video
and audio tape--making the imagined, real. But just as digital imaging presents endless
possibilities for creation, it also provides endless possibilities for legal infringement. Legal issues
to be explored in this discussion include the use of photographs as evidence, copyright
infringement and invasion of privacy.

Jaspreet S Kapur(2009) : Copyright, is a bundle of rights, which grants protection to the unique
expression of ideas.Ideas per se cannot be protected; it is the expression of ideas in a material
medium that is the subject matter of copyright protection. Copyright is a negative right and the
owner of a copyright gets the right to prevent others from copying his work without his consent
towards a commercial end. However, at the same time it gives to the author an exclusive right for
the commercial exploitation of his work.”2 Copyright is an important part of the wider sphere of
Intellectual Property Rights. The problem of photocopying can be solved only by the effective
administration of copyright through a copyright society of authors and publishers. Though the
Copyright (Amendment) Act of 1994 provides for the setting up of such societies no copyright
for literacy works has come into existence till today.
Arvind Kumar (1997): Establishment of a copyright society is necessary also for effective
administration of all such copyright and neighbouring rights where the individual exercise of
such rights, because of their number and circumstances relating to their uses, is impracticable or
economically disadvantageous. These include the staging rights of plays because it is impossible
for playwrights to keep track of the show put up by theatre groups all over the country, and
collect payment for them. According to Vijay Tendulkar, Maharashtra is the only state where the
legal requirement of obtaining the staging rights is followed even by amateur theatre groups.

K.M. Thomas & Anupama Chopra : There isn't much one can do to stop piracy. The Indian
copyright law looks great on paper - violations can result in a three-year jail term and a Rs 2 lakh
fine - but implementing it is another story. Criminal proceedings would require incriminating
evidence such as VCDs and, ideally, eye-witnesses, both of which are near impossible to get.
The latest technology allows operators to beam signals from mobile vans and even their own
homes. And even if a producer managed to put a violator away, operations could continue since
there are no licences to be revoked. As Bachchan himself puts it, "Cable piracy is despicable and
the losses are phenomenal. The industry will have to get together and fight this. We need proper
leadership.

Tarleton Gillespie, (2007): In order to be effective in controlling the distribution of digital

media, Gillespie explains, DRM requires the creation of a regulatory regime—referred to as a
“trusted system”—made up of artifacts (encrypted goods and trusted devices capable of
decrypting them for playback), industry agreements (between content producers and device
manufacturers), and legal protection (to discourage circumvention of DRM protections). The
author highlights some significant shortcomings of this system: it provides IP owners with
absolute control over content (even though this has been historically rejected by copyright law),
lacks flexibility and political transparency, and treats users of IP as consumers of culture rather
than contributors to it.

Michael J. (1999): We are living in an entertainment economy, and entertainment — not autos,
steel or financial services — is fast becoming the engine of growth of the New Economy.
Robert A. Gorman, Jane C. Ginsburg, R. Anthony Resse (2011): Copyright doesn’t preclude
others from using the ideas or information revealed by the authors work. It pertains to the
literary, musical, graphic or artistic form in which the author expressed the intellectual concepts.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY:

Entertainment Industry is one of the booming sectors in the fast growing economy of India,
which has great potential to take global leadership position in the arena of entertainment. The
scenario of the industry is changing dramatically. This is fuelled by various factors such as the
spectacular growth of the television industry, the new formats for film production and
distribution, the privatization and growth of radio in the country, the gradually liberalizing
attitude of government towards the sector, easier access to and for international companies, and
the like. Under the new scenario, customers need to be entertained, indulged, surprised, and
amused.

India has traditionally been a heavy consumer of films. Thus, the industry is growing rapidly
and this merits a look at all the aspects concerning this new factor that contributes largely to the
economy in more ways than one. Copyright law creates a maze of problems for many people
connected to the media thus it becomes important to analyze various issues relating to copyright
emerging in entertainment industries.

OBJECTIVE:
The present study is aimed to understand the most controversial issue emerging from the
entertainment and media industry i.e. the problems of Copyright infringement arising in the
rapidly growing Entertainment & Media Industry. Thus, the present topic for the doctoral study
is carried out with an objective to:

1. To analyze the issues of copyright infringement arising in the Entertainment & Media
Industry.
2. To analyze that who should have the Copyright as the product production is at multiple
levels in Entertainment industry.
3. To analyze that what is the subject matter that should be protected.
4. To analyze that what should be the criteria to determine that whether there exists any
substantial similarity between the two works.
5. To analyze the recent judicial trends in this regard.
METHODOLOGY:
The researcher has adopted the both the doctrinal method and secondary survey by keeping in
view the hypothesis and the objectives of the paper. The researcher has referred the primary as
well as the secondary data. As the existing Act, the amendment to the existing Act, the Judicial
Precedents are considered as the primary data and the information’s gathered from different
authors and various articles from different journals and online sites are considered as the
secondary data.

SCHEME OF THE STUDY:

1. INTRODUCTION.
2. ISSUES RELATED TO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT.
3. WORKS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT.
4. SUBSTANTIAL SIMILARITY WITH REFERENCE TO MOVIES, PLAYS AND BOOKS.
5. SUPERMAN AND BEATLES CONTROVERSY.
 DOCTRINE OF FAIR USE: AN EXCEPTION TO THE INFRINGEMENT.
 HOME VIDEO AND FAIR USE.
6. NAPSTER CONTROVERSY.
7. RECENT JUDICIAL TRENDS.
8. CONCLUSION.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY:

The present study of the Copyright issues in Entertainment & Media industry is only limited to
the problems arising in Entertainment industry related to copyrights only.

HYPOTHESIS:
The following hypothesis has been prepared for the purpose of the present research study while
keeping in view the objectives of the study:

1. That the copyright is often violated and needs protection.

2. That the surest and the safest test to determine whether or not there has been a violation
of copyright is to see if the reader, spectator or the viewer after having read or seen both
 the works is clearly of the same opinion and gets an unmistakable impression that the
subsequent work appears to be a copy of the original.
3. That the public at large must also be conscious of the harm caused to the economy by the
practice of buying pirated versions at cheaper prices.
4. that if the consent of copyright owner is obtained there cannot be an infringement of
copyright, but in case the consent is not possible to obtain the person still can be entitled
legally to the sound recording if he follows a prescribed procedure.

RESEARCH QUESTION:
The Researcher deals with the question of problems related to copyright Infringement in
Entertainment and Media Industry.

REFERENCES:

1. Kimberly Amaral , The Digital Imaging Revolution: Legal Implications and Possible
Solutions, Available at: http://www.whoi.edu/science/B/people/kamaral/digitalimaging.html
(Last Visited 12 April 2018).
2. Jaspreet Singh Kapur , The WHYs and HOWs of Copyright Enforcement and Combating
Piracy in India: Is United States a Stakeholder? , Available at:
http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=jaspreet_kapur (Last
Visited 12 April 2018).
3. Arvind Kumar, Problems of Copyright Enforcement in India, vol. 2 Journal of Intellectual
Property Rights, (January, 1997).
4. K.M. Thomas & Anupama Chopra, Cable Piracy: Raiders of the Big Screen in India Today,
1998 WLR 208.
5. Tarleton Gillespie, Wired Shut: Copyright and the shape of digital culture 8-9 (2007).
6. Michael J. Wolf, The Entertainment Economy - How Mega-Media Forces Are
Transforming Our Lives, (Three Rivers Press - Times Books, Random House, New York,
1999).
7. Robert A. Gorman, Jane C. Ginsburg, R. Anthony Resse, Copyright cases and materials 100
(2011).