Relavance of COPYRIGHT

                                  Of all the tool of Intellectual Property Rights,Copyright and the Related Rights cover protection for the broadest range of innovative works. It provides a framework for the protection of creative works that are expressions fixed in any medium Copyright .by its very nature interfaces with the publishing, photography, computer generated works, entertainment including films, drama, architectural, works of artistic craftsmanship, audio recordings, dance forms, educational, transmission / broadcasting, art including industrial drawing, sculpture, painting, lectures etc. Creative expressions are as old as human societies and hence this field of IPR also gets organically linked to cultural dynamics of societies. The associated IPR issues need to be appreciated and addressed. [see Intellectual Property… A Powerful Tool for Economic Growth WIPO Publication No. 888, Chapter 6, pages 190-236]

                     There is thus Copyright of the creators in literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works and neighbouring rights or related rights for those who produce sound recordings, films, broadcasts, cablecasts and published editions.

                      Central to Copyright are the recognition of the creator and the owner of the work. Hence documentation and establishment of the author, the time, place of creation of the work, the nature of the creative work and the circumstances under which the work is created are of paramount importance. Based on these parameters, the work qualifies for a Copyright or neighbouring and related rights (in some texts also defined as entrepreneurial copyrights). Accordingly the Copyright law has provisions for ownership, nature of the right, the duration of the right and scope of monopoly. [see “Intellectual Property by W.R. Cornish Universal Law Publishing Co Pvt Ltd, Delhi India, 3rd edition, 1st Indian Reprint 2001 pages 330-331]

                Copyright infringement, or copyright violation, is the unauthorized use of works covered by copyright law, in a way that violates one of the copyright owner's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.

                For electronic and audio-visual media, unauthorized reproduction and distribution is also commonly referred to as piracy. An early reference to piracy in the context of copyright infringement was made by Daniel Defoe in 1703 when he said of his novel The True-Born Englishman that "Its being Printed again and again, by Pyrates". The practice of labeling the act of infringement as "piracy" predates statetory copyright law. Prior to the Statute of Anne 1709, the Stationers' Company of London in 1557 received a Royal Charter giving the company a monopoly on publication and tasking it with enforcing the charter. Those who violated the charter were labeled pirates as early as 1603.