Delhi High Court restores copyright infringement case at Delhi University

Monday, December 12, 2016

On Friday, the Delhi High Court restored a trial over claims of copyright infringement from photocopying of study materials for Delhi University (DU) course packs.

The charges of violation of copyright by DU's Rameshwari Photocopy Service were dismissed by justice Rajiv Sahan Endlaw in September saying there is no copyright infringement. But the bench of justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Yogesh Khanna said the case raises a "triable issue".

The bench restored the case, meanwhile still allowing the Rameshwari Photocopy Service to sell course packs containing copyrighted material of the publications of claimants Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and Taylor and Francis. The shop has been asked to report to the court every six months on what and how many course packs it photocopies and distributes.

The owner of the photocopy service shop, Dharam Pal Singh, said there was no reason for preparation of a course pack beyond the curriculum. He said the course pack had only readings the professors require or recommend; only important sections of the published books were photocopied.

"We declare that the law in India would not warrant an approach to answer the question by looking at whether the course pack has become a textbook, but by considering whether the inclusion of the copyrighted work in the course pack was justified by the purpose of the course pack", the bench said.

Dharam Pal said the students needed course packs because some books are limited by "availability, price and circulation". He said they are preserving data of some books last published more than half a century ago, and that some of the books cost more than ₹ 2000.

The High Court said it needs "expert evidence" to judge whether it is copyright violation or, as judge Sahani ruled, a fair use.

The case of copyright infringement was filled in the court in 2012. In September, Justice Endlaw said that, according to Section 52 of the Copyright Act, this instructional use did not amount to copyright infringement. He said, "Copyright, specially in literary works, is thus not an inevitable, divine, or natural right that confers on authors the absolute ownership of their creations." Endlaw added, "Copyright is intended to increase and not to impede the harvest of knowledge. It is intended to motivate the creative activity of authors and inventors in order to benefit the public."

Have an opinion on this story? Share it!

Sources

Akansha Jain. "DU photocopy case: court restores copyright suit by publishers for trial" — The Hindu, December 10, 2016
Aranya Shankar. "Delhi University-based photocopy shop owner welcomes verdict" — The Indian Express, December 10, 2016
Lawrence Liang. "A blow for the right to knowledge" — The Hindu, September 19, 2016 (updated November 1, 2016)

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License