COPYRIGHT vs.

COPYLEFT

A project submitted in total fulfilment of the course- Intellectual Property Rights Law,
7th SEMESTER during the academic year 2019-2020

SUBMITTED BY:
Soumya Sinha
ROLL- 1652
B.B.A. LL.B.

SUBMITTED TO:
Dr. S.C. Roy
Faculty for Intellectual Property Right Law
_________________________________________________________________

August 2019
Chanakya National Law University, Nyaya Nagar,
Mithapur, Patna- 800001

1
 Table of Content

Serial No. Content Name Page no.

1 Declaration 3
2 Acknowledgement 4
3 Research Methodology 5
4 Aims & Objectives 5
5 Introduction 6–7

6 Copyright 8 – 12

7 Copyleft 13 – 16

8 Analysis of Copyright & Copyleft 17 – 18

9 Conclusion 19
10 Bibliography 20

2
 Declaration by the Candidate

I hereby declare that the work reported in the B.B.A. LL.B. (Hons.)
Project Report entitled “Copyright vs. Copyleft” for the seventh
semester, submitted at Chanakya National Law University, Patna, is
an authentic record of my work carried out under the supervision of Dr.
S.C. Roy. I have not submitted this work elsewhere for any other degree
or diploma. I am fully responsible for the contents of my Project Report.

__________________________
(Signature of the Candidate)

SOUMYA SINHA
,
Roll - 1652
Chanakya National Law University, Patna

Acknowledgement
3
It is a genuine pleasure to express my deep sense of thanks and gratitude to
my guide, Dr. S.C. Roy, Faculty for Intellectual Property Rights Law at
Chanakaya National Law University, Patna. His dedication and keen
interest in making us understand every part of his subject very clearly, is
solely responsible for completing my work. His timely advice, meticulous
scrutiny, scholarly advice and methodological approach helped to me a very
great extent to accomplish this task, assigned by him.

I also owe a deep sense of gratitude to my respected university,

Chanakaya National Law University, Patna, as it ensures to provide us with
great opportunities to enhance our knowledge on the ongoing study topic,
by assigning us such research projects for every subject we are supposed to
pass through.

Lastly, I would like to extend my gratitude to my parents and all those

unseen hands who helped me out at every stage of my project.

Research Methodology

4
 For this study, primary research method was utilised. Various e-articles, reports,
magazines and books from library were used extensively in framing all the data and
figures in appropriate form, essential for this study.

The method of writing used in this research project is primarily analytical.

Aims & Objectives

The main purpose of this study is to:

a. study about the basic concept of Copyright and Copyleft
b. study about their key features and differences
c. to draw out the affects of Copyright & Copyleft in the protection of intellectual
property.

Introduction
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Intellectual property (IP) pertains to any original creation of the human intellect such as artistic, literary,
technical, or scientific creation. Intellectual property rights (IPR) refers to the legal rights given to the

5
 inventor or creator to protect his invention or creation for a certain period of time.1 These legal rights
confer an exclusive right to the inventor/creator or his assignee to fully utilize his invention/creation for
a given period of time. It is very well settled that IP play a vital role in the modern economy. It has also
been conclusively established that the intellectual labor associated with the innovation should be given
due importance so that public good emanates from it. There has been a quantum jump in research and
development (R&D) costs with an associated jump in investments required for putting a new technology
in the market place.2 The stakes of the developers of technology have become very high, and hence, the
need to protect the knowledge from unlawful use has become expedient, at least for a period, that would
ensure recovery of the R&D and other associated costs and adequate profits for continuous investments
in R&D. 3 IPR is a strong tool, to protect investments, time, money, effort invested by the
inventor/creator of an IP, since it grants the inventor/creator an exclusive right for a certain period of
time for use of his invention/creation. Thus IPR, in this way aids the economic development of a
country by promoting healthy competition and encouraging industrial development and economic
growth. Present review furnishes a brief overview of IPR with special emphasis on pharmaceuticals.

Brief History- the laws and administrative procedures relating to IPR have their roots in Europe. The
trend of granting patents started in the fourteenth century. In comparison to other European countries, in
some matters England was technologically advanced and used to attract artisans from elsewhere, on
special terms. The first known copyrights appeared in Italy. Venice can be considered the cradle of IP
system as most legal thinking in this area was done here; laws and systems were made here for the first
time in the world, and other countries followed in due course.4 Patent act in India is more than 150 years
old. The inaugural one is the 1856 Act, which is based on the British patent system and it has provided
the patent term of 14 years followed by numerous acts and amendments.

Types of Intellectual Properties and their Description- Originally, only patent, trademarks, and industrial
designs were protected as ‘Industrial Property’, but now the term ‘Intellectual Property’ has a much
wider meaning. IPR enhances technology advancement in the following ways:
(a) it provides a mechanism of handling infringement, piracy, and unauthorized use
(b) it provides a pool of information to the general public since all forms of IP are published except in
case of trade secrets.

1 Singh R. Vol. 1. New Delhi: Universal Law Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd; 2004. Law relating to intellectual
property (A complete comprehensive material on intellectual property covering acts, rules,
conventions, treaties, agreements, case-Law and much more)
2 New Delhi: Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India; 2002. Anonymous.

Research and development statistics.

3 New Delhi: Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India; 2002.

Anonymous. Research and development in industry: An overview.

4 Bainbridge DI. New York: Longman; 2002. Intellectual property.

6
 IP protection can be sought for a variety of intellectual efforts including:
(i) Patents
(ii) Industrial designs relates to features of any shape, configuration, surface pattern, composition of
lines and colours applied to an article whether 2-D, e.g., textile, or 3-D, e.g., toothbrush5
(iii) Trademarks relate to any mark, name, or logo under which trade is conducted for any product or
service and by which the manufacturer or the service provider is identified. Trademarks can be bought,
sold, and licensed. Trademark has no existence apart from the goodwill of the product or service it
symbolizes6
(iv) Copyright relates to expression of ideas in material form and includes literary, musical, dramatic,
artistic, cinematography work, audio tapes, and computer software7
(v) Geographical indications are indications, which identify as good as originating in the territory of a
country or a region or locality in that territory where a given quality, reputation, or other characteristic
of the goods is essentially attributable to its geographical origin8.

Copyright
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Copyright is a branch of Intellectual Property Rights and an exclusive legal right given by the judiciary to
the creator on his creation. As a creator (he/she/group) has rights to enjoy financial and other benefits
associated as per the law over the creation. Violation of copyright law would lead to several judiciary
consequences. On the other hand law permits libraries to use copyrighted material for research and
academic purpose without any permission from the copyright holder. Further, any violation or an

5 New Delhi: Universal Law Publishing Co. Ltd; 2004. Anonymous. The Design Act. 2000 along with
Design Rules 2001.
6 New Delhi: Commercial Law Publisher (India) Pvt. Ltd; 2004. Anonymous. The Trademarks Act 1999

along with trade Marks Rules 2002.

7 New Delhi: Commercial Law Publisher (India) Pvt. Ltd; 2005. Anonymous. The Copyright Act 1957 as

amended up to 1999 along with Copyright Rules 1958 and International Copyright Order 1999.
8 New Delhi: Universal Law Publishing Co. Ltd; 2004. Anonymous. The Geographical Indications of

Goods (registration and protection) Act, 1999 along with Geographical Indications of Goods
(registration and protection) Rules 2002.
7
infringement of fair use of library resources is punishable under copyright act. Here an attempt has been
made to understand copyright issues in relation to library resources, also highlight protection,
infringement, fair dealings, and limitations under the Indian copyright act 1957. Besides, pointing out on
the roles and responsibilities of librarians with regard to copyright laws.

Copyright is a right given by the law to creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works and
producers of cinematograph films and sound recordings. It is a bundle of rights including, inter alia, rights
of reproduction, communication to the public, adaptation and translation of the work. The only criterion
to determine whether a person is entitled to copyright protection is originality in expression.

Brief History of Copyright Law in India-

The evolution of Copyright Law in India is spread over three phases. The law of copyright was
introduced in India during the reign of the British Rule in India via the British Copyright Act, 1911. This
Act had very different provisions in comparison to today’s law. The term of the Copyright was lifetime of
the author plus seven years after the death of the author. However the total term of copyright cannot
exceed the period of forty-two years. The government could grant a compulsory licence to publish a book
if the owner of copyright, upon the death of the author, refused to allow its publication. Registration of
Copyright with the Home Office was mandatory for enforcement of rights under the Act. This was the
first phase.
The second phase was in 1914, when the Indian legislature under the British Raj enacted the Copyright
Act of 1914. It was almost similar to the British Copyright Act of 1911. However the major change that
was brought in this Act was the criminal sanction for infringement. The 1914 Act was constantly
amended a number of times. Subsequently, India saw the third phase of its copyright law evolution in the
introduction of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 that was enacted in order to suit the provisions of the
Berne Convention. This Act was enacted by Independent India and is the main Act by which we are
governed till date.

The term “copyright” is not defined under the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 (hereinafter referred to as
“Copyright Act”). The general connotation of the term copyright refers to the “right to copy” which is
available only to the author or the creator, as the case may be. Thus, any other person who copies the
original work would be amount to infringement under the Copyright Act. Copyright ensures certain
minimum safeguards of the rights of authors over their creations. Creativity being the keystone of
progress, no civilized society can afford to ignore the basic requirement of encouraging the same.
Economic and social development of a society is dependent on creativity. The protection provided by
copyright to the efforts of writers, artists, designers, dramatists, musicians, architects and producers of

8
sound recordings, cinematograph films and computer software, creates an atmosphere conducive to
creativity, which induces them to create more and motivates others to create.
On the other hand, what he creates cannot be claimed ownership for generations all together as it might
harm the social justice. Therefore, a term of life plus sixty years is being adopted in India for the purpose
of determining the period of copyright. This period may vary from country to country. If copyright
protection is applied rigidly, it can hamper progress of the society. Therefore, copyright laws are enacted
with necessary exceptions and limitations to ensure that a balance is maintained between the interests of
the creators and of the community.
Many types of exploitation of work, which are for various social purposes such as education, religious
ceremonies, and so on are exempted from the operation of the rights granted in the Act. Copyright in a
work is considered as infringed only if a substantial part is used unauthorized. What is ‘substantial’ varies
from case to case. More often than not, it is a matter of quality rather than quantity. For example, if a
lyricist copy a very catching phrase from another lyricist’s song, there is likely to be infringement even if
that phrase is very short. The best example would be “Oh, Pretty women” dealt in the case of Campbell
Vs Acuff Ross Music Inc.9,
The copyright law therefore, to strike a balance between promoting innovativeness amongst the creators
and the interest of the general public has excluded a fair deal of works that is permitted without specific
permission of the copyright owners. In order to protect the interests of users, some exemptions have been
prescribed in respect of specific uses of works enjoying copyright such as research or private study,
criticism or review, reporting of events, judicial proceeding, performance made before a non-paying
audience etc.
Copyright may be acquired for almost all the visible things like script, photo, book, essay, films, videos,
architecture, etc., and also intangible things such as music. The most important criteria to determine
whether the said article is copyrightable or not, is based on its originality. Also copyright can be only for
things that are worth copying and not otherwise. For example, a baby scribing in a pad cannot be
copyrighted.
Copyright protects the expression and not the content or substance per se. For example, an author writes
about making of an aircraft. Here, the idea of making of the plane is not protected but the only the way of
expressing is protected. The idea is protected under the Patent law and not under Copyright Act.
Copyright also does not protect the titles per se or the names, word or a set of words. But there can be
exceptions based on the facts and circumstances of each case. For example, the actor Shah Rukh Khan
has copyrights his name (SRK) and the music composer A.R.Rahman copyrighted the title “Jai Ho” for
the Oscar song. It is noteworthy to mention here that the defendant can always take a stand of cancellation
of copyright in any suit unless he is estopped by any implied or express acceptance.

9 510 U.S. 569 (1994)

9
Copyright may also be granted for things that would come under patents, trademarks or designs. As
copyright protects only the expression and nothing more, it is not much preferred in practice except in
case of film industry. This will be dealt elaborately in forth coming topics.

Work in which copyright subsists (Chapter III, Section 13 of Copyright Act)-

 Literary works (including computer programmes, tables and compilations including computer
literary data bases)
 Dramatic works
 Musical works
 Artistic works
 Cinematograph films
 Sound recordings.

Foreign Works-
The copyright of foreign works is also protected in India. Copyright of nationals of countries who are
members of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, Universal Copyright
Convention and the TRIPS Agreement are protected in India through the International Copyright Order,
as if such works are Indian works. Copyright as provided by the Indian Copyright Act is valid only within
the borders of the country. To secure protection to Indian works in foreign countries, India has become a
member of the following international conventions on copyright and neighbouring (related) rights:
a. Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic works.
b. Universal Copyright Convention.
c. Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms against Unauthorised Duplication of their
Phonograms.
d. Multilateral Convention for the Avoidance of Double Taxation of Copyright Royalties.
e. Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement.

Registration of Copyright-
Copyright is automatic once the original work is created and it does not require any formality. However,
certificate of registration of copyright and the entries made therein serve as prima facie evidence in a
court of law with reference to dispute relating to ownership of copyright.
Procedure for registration: Chapter VI of the Copyright Rules, 1956 sets out the procedure for the
registration under the Copyright Act. The procedure for registration is as follows:
a. Application for registration is to be made on Form IV (including Statement of Particulars and
Statement of Further Particulars) as prescribed in the first schedule to the Rules;

10
b. Separate applications should be made for registration of each work;
c. Each application should be accompanied by the requisite fee prescribed in the second schedule to the
Rules; and
d. The applications should be signed by the applicant or the advocate in whose favour a Vakalatnama or
Power of Attorney has been executed. The Power of Attorney signed by the party and accepted by the
advocate should also be enclosed.
Each and every column of the Statement of Particulars and Statement of Further Particulars should be
replied specifically.
Both published and unpublished works can be registered. Copyright in works published before 21st
January, 1958, i.e., before the Copyright Act, 1957 came in force, can also be registered, provided the
works still enjoy copyright. Three copies of published work may be sent along with the application.
If the work to be registered is unpublished, a copy of the manuscript has to be sent along with the
application for affixing the stamp of the Copyright Office in proof of the work having been registered. In
case two copies of the manuscript are sent, one copy of the same duly stamped will be returned, while the
other will be retained, as far as possible, in the Copyright Office for record and will be kept confidential.
Also it would also be open to the applicant to send only extracts from the unpublished work instead of the
whole manuscript and ask for the return of the extracts after being stamped with the seal of the Copyright
Office. When a work has been registered as unpublished and subsequently it is published, the applicant
may apply for changes in particulars entered in the Register of Copyright in Form V with prescribed fee.
Some of the advantages of Registration are:
a. Registration establishes a public record of the copyright claim.
b. Before an infringement suit may be filed in court, registration is necessary for works.
c. Registration establishes sufficient evidence in court concerning the validity of the copyright and the
facts stated in the copyright certificate.
d. If registration is made, statutory damages and attorney's fees will be available to the copyright owner in
court actions. Otherwise, only an award of actual damages and profits is available to the copyright owner.
e. Registration allows the owner of the copyright to record the registration with the Indian Customs for
protection against the importation of infringing copies.

Advantages of copyrights-
Copyrights have several advantages over other IP types, including a significantly longer statutory life—
the life of the author plus 70 years. Many copyrights will not generate economic activity for anywhere
near the statutory life of the author or beyond. Another advantage of copyrights is that the owner is
entitled to actual damages and any additional profits enjoyed by the infringer, or statutory damages. The
calculation of damages can be easier for a copyright litigation as opposed to a patent litigation.

11
Lastly, copyrights are relatively inexpensive and simple to register. Authors gain protection and
ownership for copyrightable works at the point authors fix the work in a tangible medium. Thus, the
copyright owner receives protection immediately after that point without any explicit action with a
government agency.

Disadvantages of copyrights-
The primary disadvantage for copyrights is that copyrights protect the expression of an idea, not the idea
itself. Patents and trade secrets typically protect ideas. The difference may be subtle, but it is an important
distinction. For example, an inventor publishes an article describing a new technology. Copyright law
protects the way the author expressed the invention in the article; however, the actual invention described
in the article does not receive copyright protection.

Copyleft
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

History-
The concept of copyleft was described in Richard Stallman's GNU Manifesto in 1985, where he wrote:
“GNU is not in the public domain. Everyone will be permitted to modify and redistribute GNU, but no
distributor will be allowed to restrict its further redistribution. That is to say, proprietary modifications
will not be allowed. I want to make sure that all versions of GNU remain free.”

12
Stallman worked a few years earlier on a Lisp interpreter. Symbolics asked to use the Lisp interpreter, and
Stallman agreed to supply them with a public domain version of his work. Symbolics extended and
improved the Lisp interpreter, but when Stallman wanted access to the improvements that Symbolics had
made to his interpreter, Symbolics refused. Stallman then, in 1984, proceeded to work towards
eradicating this emerging behavior and culture of proprietary software, which he named software
hoarding. This was not the first time Stallman had dealt with proprietary software, but he deemed this
interaction a "turning point". He justified software sharing, protesting that when sharing, the software
online can be copied without the loss of the original piece of work. Everyone is a winner. The software
can be used multiple times without ever being damaged or wearing out.10

As Stallman deemed it impractical in the short term to eliminate current copyright law and the wrongs he
perceived it perpetuated, he decided to work within the framework of existing law; in 1985, he created his
own copyright license, the Emacs General Public License,11 the first copyleft license. This later evolved
into the GNU General Public License, which is now one of the most popular free-software licenses. For
the first time a copyright holder had taken steps to ensure that the maximal number of rights be
perpetually transferred to a program's users, no matter what subsequent revisions anyone made to the
original program. This original GPL did not grant rights to the public at large, only those who had already
received the program; but it was the best that could be done under existing law.

The new license was not at this time given the copyleft label. Richard Stallman stated that the use of
"Copyleft" comes from Don Hopkins, who mailed him a letter in 1984 or 1985, on which was written:
"Copyleft – all rights reversed." The term "kopyleft" with the notation "All Rites Reversed" was also in
use in the early 1970s, within the Principia Discordia, which may have inspired Hopkins or influenced
other usage. And in the arts Ray Johnson had earlier coined the term independently as it pertained to his
making of and distribution of his mixed media imagery in his mail art and ephemeral gifts, for which he
encouraged the making of derivative works.

It has been suggested that copyleft became a divisive issue in the ideological strife between the Open
Source Initiative and the free-software movement. However, there is evidence that copyleft is both
accepted and proposed by both parties:
 Both the OSI and the FSF have copyleft and non-copyleft licenses in their respective lists of
accepted licenses.

10Carver, Brian W. "Share and Share Alike: Understanding and Enforcing Open Source and Free
Software Licenses". Berkeley Technology Law Journal. SSRN 1586574. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
11 http://www.free-soft.org/gpl_history/emacs_gpl.html

13
  The OSI's original Legal Counsel Lawrence Rosen has written a copyleft license, the Open
Software License.
 The OSI's licensing how-to recognises the GPL as a "best practice" license.12
 Some of the software programs of the GNU Project are published under non-copyleft licenses.
 Stallman himself has endorsed the use of non-copyleft licenses in certain circumstances.

Copyleft, distinguished from copyright, is the practice of offering people the right to freely distribute
copies and modified versions of a work with the stipulation that the same rights be preserved in derivative
works created later.13 Copyleft software licenses are considered protective or reciprocal, as contrasted
with permissive free-software licenses.

Copyleft is a form of licensing, and can be used to maintain copyright conditions for works ranging from
computer software, to documents, to art, to scientific discoveries and instruments in medicine. 14 In
general, copyright law is used by an author to prohibit recipients from reproducing, adapting, or
distributing copies of their work. In contrast, under copyleft, an author must give every person who
receives a copy of the work permission to reproduce, adapt, or distribute it, with the accompanying
requirement that any resulting copies or adaptations are also bound by the same licensing terms.

Copyleft licenses for software require that information necessary for reproducing and modifying the work
must be made available to recipients of the binaries. The source code files will usually contain a copy of
the license terms and acknowledge the authors.
Copyleft type licenses are a novel use of existing copyright law to ensure a work remains freely available.
The GNU General Public License (GPL), originally written by Richard Stallman, was the first software
copyleft license to see extensive use, and continues to dominate in that area.15 Creative Commons, a non-
profit organization founded by Lawrence Lessig, provides a similar license-provision condition called
share-alike.16

Applying Copyleft:

12 Raymond, Eric Steven (9 November 2002). "Licensing HOWTO". Retrieved 23 August 2008.
13 https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/
14 Newman, John (29 December 2011). "Copyright and Open Access at the Bedside".
15 Stallman, Richard (29 June 2007). "GNU General Public License". GNU Project. Retrieved 1 May

2017.
16 "Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)". Creative Commons. Creative Commons.

Retrieved 14 August 2015.

14
Common practice for using copyleft is to codify the copying terms for a work with a license. Any such
license typically gives each person possessing a copy of the work the same freedoms as the author,
including (from the Free Software Definition):

Freedom 0 – the freedom to use the work,

Freedom 1 – the freedom to study the work,
Freedom 2 – the freedom to copy and share the work with others,
Freedom 3 – the freedom to modify the work, and the freedom to distribute modified and therefore
derivative works.
The list begins with 0 because the freedom to use the work was an afterthought, but deemed most
important. It is a common misconception that it is a reference to zero-based numbering from computer
programming.
These freedoms do not ensure that a derivative work will be distributed under the same liberal terms. In
order for the work to be truly copyleft, the license has to ensure that the author of a derived work can only
distribute such works under the same or equivalent license.

In addition to restrictions on copying, copyleft licenses address other possible impediments. These
include ensuring the rights cannot be later revoked and requiring the work and its derivatives to be
provided in a form that facilitates modification. In software, this requires that the source code of the
derived work be made available together with the software itself.
Copyleft licenses necessarily make creative use of relevant rules and laws. For example, when using
copyright law, those who contribute to a work under copyleft usually must gain, defer or assign copyright
holder status. By submitting the copyright of their contributions under a copyleft license, they deliberately
give up some of the rights that normally follow from copyright, including the right to be the unique
distributor of copies of the work.
Some laws used for copyleft licenses vary from one country to another, and may also be granted in terms
that vary from country to country. For example, in some countries it is acceptable to sell a software
product without warranty, in standard GNU GPL style (see articles 11 and 12 of the GNU GPL version
2), while in most European countries it is not permitted for a software distributor to waive all warranties
regarding a sold product. For this reason the extent of such warranties are specified in most European
copyleft licenses. Regarding that, see the European Union Public Licence EUPL, 17 or the CeCILL
license, 18 a license that allows one to use GNU GPL (see article 5 of the EUPL and article 5.3.4 of
CeCILL) in combination with a limited warranty (see article 7 and 8 of the EUPL and 9 of CeCILL). For

17 "The EUPL – European Union Public Licence". European Commission.

18 http://www.inria.fr/valorisation/logiciels/Licence.CeCILL-V1.US.pdf
15
projects which will be run over a network, a variation of the GPL is provided in the Affero General Public
License, which ensures that the source code is available to users of network software.

Advantages of Copyleft:
 It is cost-free to use a copyleft program
 Copyleft provides free access to modified work
 It encourages people to modify the work
 It encourages people to reproduce their modified
 It gives users freedom of expression
 Freely available to anyone to use for any purpose, including studying, copying, modifying,
extending and giving it away.

Disadvantages of Copyleft:
 It’s against the idea that knowledge is limited to private property of a small population
 Forbidden to use the material for commercial purposes, cannot make a profit since it is free
 If you are using someone else’s modified work, there is a risk to take because the information may
not be accurate
 If the author asks you to stop using the original copyrighted version, you must remove that it
immediately
 No technical support
 Even if there is technical support, you may have to pay to fix the problem
 Earn less profit if using copyleft.

Analysis of Copyright & Copyleft

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Most of us have a fair idea of what copyright is. Copyright is a bundle of rights in an original work.
Work here includes artistic work, sound recordings, literary or dramatic work, cinematography,
photographs and software. A copyright holder is vested with a bundle of rights including:
16
  Right to reproduce the said work
 Right to issue copies of the work
 To communicate or perform the work in public
 To make adaption and translation of the work
Hence the copyright holder (where rights are not licensed) is solely entitled to perform acts including
those mentioned above, with respect to the copyrighted work. The misconception is that copyright is a
right acquired by registration of the work with the Copyright Office, which is not so. It is a natural right.

Now coming to the concept of Copyleft, Imagine a situation where let us say, I, write a poem and tired
of the rights vested in me through copyright in the poem, wish to share some of the rights in the work
with others as well, but subject to certain conditions. That is what Copyleft is all about.
Copyleft is a concept by which a work is thrown open to third parties with some rights, like copying,
making changes etc and any derivative born out of such work will also be subject to similar (Copyleft)
terms and conditions. For example : A person who received a work with Copyleft (license), would be
free to use and adapt the said work, tweak and make improvements to it but the resultant work will also
come under the purview of such Copyleft only, with similar set of rights and restrictions.

The bottom line of Copyleft is an opportunity for people to make use of a work and grant the same set of
rights to the other interested parties as well. While an entity grants other parties the right to use a work
to make modifications or adaptions to it, then the second-in-line should carry on, without in any way
hampering the chain, say by trying to claim proprietary rights over the derivative born out of the
Copyleft work. So a person who receives a Copyleft work and adapts it will not be in a position to
restrict the rights over the said derivative.

The Copyleft concept/form of licensing is quite refreshing in terms of free movement of a work. It does
not confine the rights in work to a single person or a minimal group of persons but rather widens the
area to include as many persons as are interested provided such persons are willing to comply with the
conditions of Copyleft, which again are quite reasonable. Such Copyleft forms of licenses are more
commonly found in the software industry, but is of course not confined to Software but can be
implemented to any work, be it artistic, dramatic or literary. It is also to be borne in mind that Copyleft
does not imply that the work is in public domain, where any person cannot exploit a work.

HOW DIFFERENT IS COPYRIGHT FROM COPYLEFT?

There can be no comparison between Copyright and Copyleft as the very concept of Copyleft springs
from the concept of Copyright. But Copyright is prohibitive in terms of forbidding third parties from
exercising rights reserved only for the author. Whereas in a Copyleft form of license, the rights granted
17
to third parties are tweaked to be more liberal but at the same time, also ensure that such liberality is not
cut off but carries on to every user of the said work. Personally I feel Copyleft encourages innovation.

Conclusion
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Copyright is a form of intellectual property protection granted under Indian law to the creators of
original works of authorship such as literary works (including computer programs, tables and
compilations including computer databases which may be expressed in words, codes, schemes or in

18
any other form, including a machine readable medium), dramatic, musical and artistic works,
cinematographic films and sound recordings.

Copyright law protects expressions of ideas rather than the ideas themselves. Under section 13 of the
Copyright Act 1957, copyright protection is conferred on literary works, dramatic works, musical
works, artistic works, cinematograph films and sound recording. For example, books, computer
programs are protected under the Act as literary works.

Copyright refers to a bundle of exclusive rights vested in the owner of copyright by virtue of Section
14 of the Act. These rights can be exercised only by the owner of copyright or by any other person
who is duly licensed in this regard by the owner of copyright. These rights include the right of
adaptation, right of reproduction, right of publication, right to make translations, communication to
public etc.
Copyright protection is conferred on all Original literary, artistic, musical or dramatic, cinematograph
and sound recording works. Original means, that the work has not been copied from any other source.
Copyright protection commences the moment a work is created, and its registration is optional.
However it is always advisable to obtain a registration for a better protection. Copyright registration
does not confer any rights and is merely a prima facie proof of an entry in respect of the work in the
Copyright Register maintained by the Registrar of Copyrights.

While, Copyleft is free software license requiring copyright authors to permit some of their work to be
reproduced. With copyright law, authors have complete control over their materials. But with copyleft
law, users and authors co-exist. Users are permitted to engage in copying and distributing copyrighted
materials. However, authors do have some say in who uses the materials based on their intended use.
Copyleft does not require source code distribution. Thus, copyleft grants users similar rights to those
normally only granted to the copyright authors, including activities such as distribution and copying.

Bibliography
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 Law Relating to Intellectual Property by Dr. B.L. Wadehra, 5th Edition, 2016
 Intellectual Property Rights by Neeraj Pandey and Khushdeep Dharni, 1st edition, 2014
19
 Intellectual Property Rights In India by V.K. Ahuja, Lexis Nexis; 1st Edition, 2015
 The GNU Public Virus by Griffis, L. Adrian (15 July 2000)
 Law of Copyright by Alka Chawla (2013), Lexis Nexis, Gurgaon
 Copyright Law for Librarians and educators by Crews, Kenneth D (2013)

20