Protection of copyright and neighbouring rights in digital age under Indian law a critical analysis

Abstract

The general idea behind the granting of protection by law to a creative work was twofold i.e., like physical property, a creative work is also a property right and so the owner of this intellectual property has the right to enjoy the fruits of his labour, and secondly, one should not be allowed to make profit by the unauthorised use of another s creative work and cause loss to him. Copyright is not a new concept belonging to this age only; the laws to provide protection to such works were made as early as in the year 1523. The earlier laws were enacted with an aim to protect the ownerand#8223;s rights as well as to keep a check that his rights are not in conflict with the public rights of learning. However, the advent of technology has changed the whole scenario and so the laws were also required to be made accordingly. The modern technology has made things easier i.e., the reproduction and dissemination of work became easy with the advent of technology. However, the technology did not bring good news only, it brought some problems too, like it became easy to copy in no time, but still that was a physical copy of the work and so it was easy to apprehend the infringer and punish him. But with the advancement of technology, which brought in digital media, internet, the opportunities and problems increased manifold. Internet provides a new medium other than the traditional medium for expressing the creativity and also provides new kinds of expression too. It also makes infringement of copyright works easy. But became difficult to apprehend the infringer because of its being territory-less. newline