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SNDT Women’s University Law School, Juhu

Seminar Topic: 

Copyright Issues in Digital Medium

Name:  Vibhuti Amarnath Agrawal

Class:  S.Y. LL.M. 

Academic Year:  2018 ­ 2019

Roll No.:  01

Subject:  Information Technology

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Professor:  Prof. Mahima Prem

Contents

1. Copyright Issues in Digital Medium…………...…………….……….…...………..03


a. Introduction ....……………………...............................................................03
b. Characteristics of Digital Technologies with Copyright Implications.……..04
c. Copyright Issues in Digital Media………….……..…………………………05
d. Data Extraction………….……………………………….……………...……07
e. Applicable Laws………......………………………………………………….07
2. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………11
3. Suggestions…………………………………………………………………...………11
4. Bibliography………………………………………………………………………….12
5. Webliography………………………………………………………………………...12

Copyright Issues in Digital Medium


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Introduction

While the contours of copyright law have always been drawn by the developments in the
technological world, the emergence of digital technologies towards the concluding decades of
the twentieth century as defining paradigms of new age communication raised a whole new
set of challenges to copyright regimes. The traditional notions of the basic concepts such as
rights of reproduction and distribution have become inadequate and even irrelevant in the
digital age. All works can now be digitalized whether they comprise texts, images, sound or
diagrams and once digitalized the various elements such as images are all 'equal' and can be
merged, transformed, manipulated or mixed to create an endless variety of new works.1

The major objective of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 is to strike out a balance between
rights of the copyright holders and the general public. To achieve its objective, copyright has
been amended with time to time so as to meet the requirements posed by the technological
advancements.

With the advent of the digital environment, the access, use, duplication or modification of the
original work has become really easy. Digital environment has created a platform for people
for widespread cost effective distribution of the original works, posing serious threats to the
interest of the creator. Threats posed by the digital environment to the copyrighted work are
way too different from that in the normal course of physical world. To counter these threats
innumerable techniques have been developed to make digital works difficult to copy,
distribute and access without necessary permission (Digital Rights Management (DRM)).

Digital Right Management includes techniques which have been developed to control
duplication, modification and distribution of original works. The authors or the creators of the
original works contend that DRM techniques are necessary in order to protect their interest by
preventing free and unauthorized copying and distribution of their work.

Some of the DRM techniques are as follows2:

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http://www.mondaq.com/india/x/370058/Copyright/Protecting+Copyright+In+The+Digital+Environment,
10.09.2018, 21:34
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http://www.mondaq.com/india/x/370058/Copyright/Protecting+Copyright+In+The+Digital+Environment,
10.09.2018, 21:29
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1. Access Control and Copy Control

Access and copy control software enables the creator to keep a check on the free and illegal
exploitation of their work. These techniques ensure that only who pay, must enjoy a right
over the product. Example of this can be a website that requires customers to pay a fee before
being offered a download. Copy controls avoid any manipulation of the original work.

2. Encryption Schemes

Encryption of content is a way to determine the authorized user in the digital environment.
Encryption involves digital scrambling of the bits that make up content to prevent the content
from being seen clearly until it is decrypted. Only authorized users have the keys to decrypt
the work.

3. Digital Watermarks

Digital Watermarks are the best techniques that help authors to trace the source of a work and
any unauthorised duplication or distribution of their original work. The unique watermark
embedded in the original work can link the use to the original work and any unauthorised
copying or use can be traced.

Characteristics of Digital Technologies with Copyright Implications

The technologies that presently are raising issues for copyright law are those related to digital
storage and transmission of works. There are a number of aspects to these technologies that
have implications for copyright law, including the following:

1. Ease of Reproduction: Once a work is rendered in digital form, it can be reproduced


rapidly, at little cost, and without any loss of quality. Each copy, in turn, can be further
reproduced, again without any loss of quality. In this way, a single copy of a work in
digital form can supply the needs of millions of users.
2. Ease of Dissemination: The emergence of global digital networks allows the rapid,
worldwide dissemination of works in digital form. Like broadcasting, digital networks
allow dissemination to many individuals from a single point. This combined with the
ease of reproducing works, means that a single digital copy of a work can be
multiplied many thousands of times around the world within a few hours.
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3. Ease of Storage: Digital storage is dense, and it gets denser with each passing year.
Ever-increasing quantities of material can be stored in a smaller and smaller amount
of space. For example, today’s popular iPod portable music player can store nearly 70
times that amount (around 10,000 songs) in a device the size of a cigarette pack.

Copyright Issues in Digital Media3

1. Software
Fastest growing industry, the computer software industry has created its own set of copyright
issues as most of the software programs can be easily copied and recreate perfectly. Also
extends to the possibility loading program onto more than one computer, which is not only
infringing but also breaches license agreement that limits use to only one computer.
However, as tempting as this practice may be, it constitutes a major act of copyright
infringement and software piracy. According to Business Software Alliance (BSA) 35% of
the world’s software is pirated, where in India its 69%.

2. Scanners
A scanner technology reproduces a photograph or other pictures in near perfect, without
decreasing quality of the image. More importantly where copyright is concerned, reproduced
image can be stored for future, can be used over and over, and even modified. By
reproducing, distributing, or modifying the copyrighted images without permission user
infringing the fundamental exclusive rights of Copyright Owner.

3. Multimedia and CD ROMs


The possibility of CD-ROMs seems endless as you can include images, music clips, sounds,
Audiovisuals, animations, computer programs and text. There is no limit to your creativity!
Unfortunately there is a limit to that is Copyright law. Each technological breakthrough adds
a new copyright factor for multimedia developers to consider.

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4. The Internet and other networks
Digital technology enables data to be copied without defect, manipulated, sliced and re-edited
with great freedom and is a perfect technology for pirates. All these technical possibilities
pose problems for copyright law in developing suitable techniques for catching up
with the infringements. The information available on the Internet has the same copyright
protection as if it were a magazine, publication, printed book, broadcast, etc. The great myth
is that the Internet is free for all in using vast available resources. In the public domain,
material found on the Internet may be copied freely only if the information is created by the
federal government or the copyright has expired or been abandoned by the holder.

5. Email
Electronic mail or e-mail is the greatest threat to the Copyright Act. According to Software &
Information Industry Association (SIIA) 75% of Internet users expect more people to know
their e-mail address and more than 50% users prefer to communicate using e-mail rather than
a telephone. If recipients of e-mail messages want to take print or forward private mails, they
are in danger of committing copyright infringement. Forward feature allows users to send
somebody’s mail to one or many or to post on mailing lists or “Usenet” groups. According to
existing copyright act, e-mail messages fall into the category of literary works, copyright
remains with author of message. The sender owns copyright on content and recipient owns
the physical space the message takes up on his or her hard disk. The recipient does not have
the right to copy, publish, or otherwise distribute the contents without permission.

6. Site Licensing
Nowadays most of the educational institutes and business organizations often employ ‘Site
Licensing’. A site license allows the institute to purchase the rights to unlimited use
of the product within the organization/ institute. A single master copy or single access to a
product purchased, downloaded or used on two or more computers leads to the copyright
breach and which is very easily traceable through network server. Information retrieved
or downloaded from single access cannot be shared, and sharing the login details also
copyright infringement.

Data Extraction: Intersection of Copyright and Information Technology laws in India


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The rise of the Internet has led to the creation of vast repository of data residing in across
servers and domains. This vast repository contains large datasets that includes ‘publicly
available information.’ This publicly available information includes – time sensitive
information – news, financial information and data, reviews, auction information, and in
multiple other categories.

The process of automatic content extraction from publicly available servers is usually
referred to as data extraction / scraping / harvesting. The only cost to extract the data is the
cost of the computer system and time required to program it to extract data. Hence this
content extraction at times becomes extremely lucrative to deal with data sets and their resale,
usually for time sensitive information. Some data security service providers estimate that up
to 40% of a websites traffic comprises data extractors. The data extraction process creates
legal issues and concerns for both sides of this issue−those who want to extract data, and
those who want to protect against extraction of data.

Applicable Laws4:

1. Copyright laws: Copyright Act, 1957


Data extraction involves copying, and hence copyright laws are first ones that are analysed.
Under Section 2 (o) of the Copyright Act, 1957, defines data compilation (or a data set) as a
“literary work”. Section 14 of the Copyright Act, 1957 further grants several exclusive rights
in favour of the copyright holder (content creator) as the first owner of such copyrighted
works (the data compilation / data set) namely: a. Right to reproduce data including storing it
by any electronic means; b. Make copies of data; c. Adapt data; d. Communicate data to
the public; and e. Translation of data

Section 51 of the Copyright Act further provides that a copyright is “deemed to be infringed”
if any of the above enumerated rights under Section 14 are contravened without the
permission of the copyright holder in the course of trade.

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https://spicyip.com/2013/10/data-extraction-intersection-of-copyright-and-information-technology-laws-in-
india.html, 10.09.2018, 21:32
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However, there are two areas that should be ascertained before determining infringement -
ownership and no fair use exception. It is only the copyright holder / content owner can raise
a claim. Hence in the case of a content aggregator – for various users, it is the users who own
the copyright and not the content aggregator. This scenario occurs for websites where users
generate the content – and the website is merely organizing the display / formatting of the
content. Section 52 of the Copyright Act lists various exceptions to copyright and care
should be taken that the content extracted has not been used under the purposes outlined for
fair dealing.

2. Information Technology Act, 2000

Section 43 of the IT Act provides for a penalty in case a computer system is damaged.
Section 43 also provides the relevant definitions to assess damage. The parts relevant to data
extraction are reproduced and highlighted below:

43. Penalty for damage to computer, computer system, etc.- If any person without
permission of the owner or any other person who is in charge of a computer, computer
system or computer network, (a) accesses or secures access to such computer, computer
system or computer network; (b) downloads, copies or extracts any data, computer data
base information from such computer, computer system or computer network including
information or data held or stored in any removable storage medium; (c) Introduces or
causes to be introduced any computer contaminant or computer virus into any computer,
computer system or computer network; (d) damages or causes to be damaged and computer,
computer system or computer network, data, computer database or any other programmes
residing in such computer, computer system or computer network; (e) disrupts or causes
disruption of any computer, computer system or computer network; (f) denies or causes the
denial of access to any person authorised to access any computer, computer system or
computer network by any means; (g, h)….

Explanation: For the purposes of this section: (i) “computer contaminant” means any set of
computer instructions that are designed – (a) to modify, destroy, record, transmit data or
programme residing within a computer, computer system or computer network; or (b) by any
means to usurp the normal operation of the computer, compute system, or computer

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network; (ii) “computer database” means a representation of information, knowledge, facts,
concepts or instructions in text, image, audio, video that are being prepared or have been
prepare in a formalised manner or have been produced by a computer, computer system or
computer network and are intended for use in a computer, computer system or computer
network; (iii) “computer virus” means any computer instruction, information, data or
programme that destroys, damages, degrades adversely affects the performance of a
computer resources or attaches itself to another itself to another computer resources and
operates when a programme, date or instruction is executed or some other even takes place in
that computer resource; (iv) “damage” means to destroy, alter, delete, add, modify or re-
arrange any computer resource by any means.

Section 66 of the act provides a punishment for a term extending to three years, or a fine of
Rupees Five Lacs, or both for the acts referred to in Section 43.

In a case where data is extracted, there are, according to the provisions of Section 43, the
following infractions: (a) Accessing or securing access to: computers, computer systems or
computer networks; (b) Downloading from, copying or extracting data, data base information
from computers, computer systems or computer networks;

However, what is problematic is clause (c) as in the absence of any guideline, an argument
could be made that repeated access from a computer system to a content owners database /
databases overloads the content owner’s database system and computer systems hosting that
database. This repeated access could be defined as a computer contaminant or computer
virus. In addition, if a content owner has to separately provision additional server space, or
devote additional severs / resources to cater to the content extractor, then the content extractor
could be considered to be a computer contaminant / virus as the actions of the content
extractor degrade the performance of the servers of the content owner.

There are no precedents under the Indian Information Technology Act that provide guidance
as what constitutes permissible data extraction. Hence terms of use of a website should be
followed / adopted before attempting data extraction. And in the case of doubt, prior
permission from a content owner should be taken before extracting data.

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It is expected that once Indian Courts are seized of such a matter involving data extraction,
they may issue certain guideposts that help in determining whether servers are overburdened,
or whether performance of content server is degraded. In issuing such guideposts, Courts
may consider what other jurisdictions are doing. For example, the United States under the
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, provides a minimum amount of damages of at least $ Five
thousand ($5,000) over a one-year period. 18 U.S.C. §1030(a)(4).

Conclusion

Technology is boon for mankind and new developments are taking place everyday. Computer
is at the core of information technology activities. These activities are no doubt is regulated
by law but the prevailing laws are not sufficient to control the unscrupulous activities. If this
technology is used for negative things in life it can prove to be disastrous and if it is used for
enriching ones personality, for getting information and for gaining knowledge it will benefit
the humanity.
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In the words of Vakul Sharma, copyright infringement is the courtesy of technology.
According to him, “Technology supports Copycat- you browse, you select and you copy.
Copying has become a dynamic 24/7 activity. The law has to differentiate between memory
and copying. Computers have been programmed in such way that they save data
automatically, whereas copying is a command, which is deliberate and intentional and may
infringe a copyright law”5.

Suggestions

Some of the steps that could be implemented for a stronger copyright protection in the digital
medium:

1. Copyrighted images should be watermarked

2. Documents should be download, copy and print disabled

3. Music should be made downloadable only on payment of certain fee

4. Websites allowing free download of music and images should be pulled down with
immediate effect / blocked

Bibliography

1. Information Technology, Law and Practice, Vakul Sharma, Third Edition

Webliography

1. Mondaq

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http://www.legalserviceindia.com/article/l200-Legal-Dimensions-of-Information-Technology---issues-of-
copyright.html, 10.09.2018, 21:33
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http://www.mondaq.com/india/x/370058/Copyright/Protecting+Copyright+In+The+D
igital+Environment

2. Research Gate

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267029014_Copyright_Issues_in_Digital_M
edia

3. Spicy IP

https://spicyip.com/2013/10/data-extraction-intersection-of-copyright-and-
information-technology-laws-in-india.html

4. Legal Services India

http://www.legalserviceindia.com/article/l200-Legal-Dimensions-of-Information-
Technology---issues-of-copyright.html

--END--

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