Copyright issues in Digital Media

In 1998, Government of India has passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which updates copyright laws to address the realities of Digital Technology. With the growth of Technology and more particularly digitization, the entire world has always recognized the need for a Digital Copyright Law. Therefore, the existing Copyright law has evolved, as the trend of maintaining records in the form of Digital data clearly requires protection a need felt all around the world.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY AND COPYRIGHT ISSUES:

The advancement in technology posed new challenges to the existing copyright laws, as the law was initially developed in the regime of print media that slowly brought under its protective shelter creative works, paintings, drawings, sculptures, which later expanded to photography and cinema as well. These age old legislations and their core concepts in copyright law had to be revisited, so as to make digital societal record progress. The technological copiers or recorders make the digital data easily available, which could lead to exploitation of the work vis a vis a free flow of information in society, as the moment this digital record is placed in the public domain on the internet the author loses all control.

The latest Copyright (Amendment) Act 2012:

A fair dealing exception, use for education purpose which were earlier applicable only in relation to certain types of work e.g. literary, dramatic and musical works, have been made applicable to all types of work.

A fair dealing exception has been extended to the reporting of current events, including the reporting of a lecture delivered in public. Earlier, fair dealing exception was limited for (i) private or personal use, including research, and (ii) criticism or review, whether of that work or of any other work. Further, it has been clarified that the storing of any work in any electronic medium for the purposes mentioned in this clause, including the incidental storage of any computer programme which is not an infringing copy, does not constitute infringement. The transient and incidental storage of a work or performance purely in the technical process of electronic transmission or communication to the public;

The transient and incidental storage of a work or performance for the purpose of providing electronic links, access or integration, where such links, access or integration has not been expressly prohibited by the right holder, unless the person responsible is aware or has reasonable grounds for believing that such storage is of an infringing copy: Provided that if the person responsible for the storage of a copy, on a complaint from which any person has been prevented, he may require such person to produce an order within fourteen days from the competent court for the continued prevention of such storage;

The storing of a work in any medium by electronic means by a non‐commercial public library, for preservation if the library already possesses a non‐digital copy of the work; The making of a three‐dimensional object from a two‐dimensional artistic work, such as a technical drawing, for the purposes of industrial application of any purely functional part of a useful device;

The evolution of copyright has been closely linked to technological development. Whereas most of the technologies made copyright protection more difficult, digital computers managed to alter the fundamental concepts behind copyright. These challenges to copyright industry have emerged at a time when the share of copyright in national economies is reaching unprecedented levels. It becomes critical to adjust the legal system to respond to the new technological developments in an effective and appropriate way, keeping in view the speed and pace of these developments.

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. Earlier rights of reproduction distribution affected tangible physical copies only of a work. The new technologies brought in non-material and distribution. Physical reproductions were replaced by digital reproduction, which was easy as well as cost effective.

The major objective of the copyright law 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. Indian Copyright Act has also been amended to counter the threats posed by the technological developments.

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. These techniques are covered under the head of 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. However there are few who support the view that DRM techniques pose unnecessary hurdles for the public and impede the way of innovation and creativity by not letting others from being motivated by the original work of others.

Some of the DRM techniques are as follows:

• 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.

Access controls are a category of software that is designed to prevent a user from getting a first copy of a work unless they have a license to do so. Copy controls are snippets of software that try to stop public from making a reproduction of work once they have obtained a copy.

Access controls are relatively easy to implement. 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.

• Encryption Schemes

Encryption Schemes allow creators to prevent any unauthorized access to their original work. 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.

• 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.

Special features are embedded into the content that are not visible as such, but which can be read by a detection device so that it knows whether the content being played or used is authorized and where the source of the content was originated. Such information can provide data on the author, rights, distribution, etc. It can also contain copy control information and instructions.

There are other various technological protection measures by way of which the infringement of copyright work can be prevented and the interest of the authors can be secured. However instead of these techniques large number of data is copied and distributed on the digital environment posing adverse effects on the rights of the creators.

CONCLUSION

Many techniques have been developed to protect the original work like digital watermarking, access and copy controls etc. However, despite the fact that these techniques have been incorporated in the legislations, regulation and protection of original works in the digital environment remains a goal that is yet to be achieved. It is very important that ideas should be available to the general public so that the flow of creativity must not be blocked. However creators and authors must always be incentivized for their efforts. Hence the interest of both must be kept in mind while enacting and implementing DRM techniques.

Few DRM provisions were introduced in the Indian Copyright law by the way of an amendment in 2012. Section 65A and 65B were added to the Indian Copyright Act, 1957. These DRM provisions under the Indian law are not as extensive and exhaustive as US laws. Being blamed for the poor protection and enforcement policies, it is high time India should stringently follow these provisions of digital rights management and keep a check on copyright infringement in the digital environment. However it is pertinent to note that a balance must always be maintained between copyright holdersand general users.