COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT AND ITS EFFECTS

Hello friends, today we shall look into the situation where any person is being charged of copyright infringement. In this article we will focus only about one of the specific provisions of the Copyright Act i.e. Sec 63 of the Copyright Act, which defines the copyright infringement to be a criminal offence prescribing both punishment and fine.

 

SEC 63 OF THE COPYRIGHT ACT

As per this provision, it is defined that any person who knowingly infringes or abets infringement of copyright in a work or any other as conferred by this Act except as provided under Sec 53A of the Act (which talks about resale share rights in original copies), shall be punishable with imprisonment of minimum 6 months which can even extend to 3 years. Moreover, such person shall also be made liable to pay a fine of rupees fifty thousand to two lacs rupees as the case may be.

Any construction work which infringes or liable to infringe any other work once completed shall be excluded from this section.

 

STEPS TO ENFORCE THIS SECTION

Let us say you are the complainant, then first of all you have to find out whether any person is infringing your copyright or not. Once you found out that someone in the market is using your copyright and en cashing your goodwill, in such an event, the first thing which you can do is to inform the police authorities about any such person and activities which he is dealing in. Once the police is convinced about the goods being actually infringed, they can carry on the raid in that person office or shop or wherever the infringed goods/products are being stored by the alleged infringer. In case, the police find some articles at the place of the alleged offender which are said to be infringed, the police then may file the case against the alleged person and register an FIR u/s 63 of the Copyright Act.

 

RIGHTS OF ALLEGED INFRINGER

Immediately after recovery of the alleged goods from the alleged infringer and registering the FIR, the police takes that person to the police station where the said person is required to take police bail. This can be done with the help of any one other person who may be the relative or any friend who is referred to as the surety. The surety undertakes before the authorities that the alleged infringer will come for the investigation as and when called by police. The person acting as surety also required to submit the photocopy of his ID proof.

Now after this, the alleged person is released on bail. Thereafter, the police authorities complete their process of investigation and finally files the case before the court of the concerned Magistrate under which the said police authority is situated.

 

PROCEDURE IN COURT OF LAW

Once the said case reaches the court, the alleged infringer again needs to obtain bail on the very first date when he appears before the court. Thereafter, the said person is given an initial chance of defending his case by arguing on the point of charge. After hearing the arguments on charge, if the court comes to conclusion that the said person is innocent, then the charges are set aside and case comes to end. However, to the contrary, if the court is not satisfied with the arguments, then the court frames the charges against such person and trial of the case begins.

 

I hope I have clearly explained the rights and liabilities arising under Sec 63 of the Copyright Act. For any further queries, please feel free to write in our comment section.