Publishers file case against photocopying to protect their content and the rights of the content creators

Updated on: Thursday, April 25, 2013

"I am quite sure that this would turn out to be one of the most important cases for students in India in recent times," says an animated Amlan Mohanty, a final year student of Bangalore's National Law School of India University. "Its implications will be felt by educational institutes across the country," he adds.

The case, which has fired up many students like Mohanty, and which comes up for hearing today in the Delhi High Court is a suit filed by big academic publishers like Oxford and Cambridge University last year against Rameshwari Photocopy Services at Delhi University. The issue is slowly becoming a matter of debate across campuses in the country.

Many copyright lawyers and students have questioned the basis of the lawsuit citing the fair dealing provision of the Indian Copyright Act that provides copyright exemption for those who are photocopying 10% of the material for educational use.

"It is a perfectly legitimate way of ensuring that students - not all of whom can afford expensive books - have access to reading material," says Mohanty. "Section 52 of the Copyright Act which provides for such educational exceptions is very clear on this. This is how students have been studying courses, preparing for exams for so many years. The way the court rules on this case, therefore, will have a bearing on the way students study in the future."

Publishers, however, point out that they are not against the fair use of their material by students and teachers; rather they say their fight is to protect their content and the rights of the content creators. "If somebody begins to commercially exploit our content as done by the unlicensed production, sale and distribution of course packs by the commercial photocopy shop on Delhi University's premises, this is not fair use. In plainspeak, this is piracy," says Sudhir Malhotra, president of the Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP).

Last month, FIP endorsed a proposal by the Indian Reprographic Rights Organization (IRRO) which claims that there is "a legitimate and accessible method for resolving the issue." IRRO, which is a Copyight Society under the Union HRD ministry mandated with monitoring reprographic and copying issues in the country, says that the solution lies in universities and institutes taking a licence from it to ensure legal compliance. "Many universities as well as institutes have come forward to take the licence which allows them to photocopy copyrighted content legally for a fee as low as Rs 12,000 per annum. Even the IIMs have showed interest," says Anand Bhushan, secretary general of IRRO.

But IRRO's solution is not accepted by many. "The proposal does not hold much ground for two reasons," says Shamnad Basheer, professor at Kolkata's National University of Judicial Sciences and founder of the blog Spicy IP. "First, the exception provided by the Copyright Act for educational use does not necessitate educational institutions taking up such a licence. Secondly, IRRO is not the sole copyright holder for all the titles being used by an educational institute. Therefore, it cannot technically offer a blanket licence."

Clearly, it'll be a while before the issue reaches a solution. Meanwhile, students, academics, publishers and Xerox-wallahs will be watching closely the case to see if the w

Publishers file case against photocopying to protect their content and the rights of the content creators

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