Context

The Andhra Pradesh High Court (HC) ruled that textbooks dealing with mathematical equations and science subjects do not come under copyright law, as their content is non-literary.

Andhra Pradesh High Court Rules in Favor of Fair Use in Academic Publications

• Challenge Government Order on Publishing Restrictions: The HC granted permission to challenge a 2010 government order that imposed restrictions on private schools and colleges regarding the publication of their own books.
  • The HC responded to a plea from a publishing house in Guntur.
• Quash of Criminal Case against Publishing House: The court quashed the criminal case against the publishing house’s owner while directing the state government not to interfere with the “legitimate business activity” of publishing books.

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Claiming Copyright Over Textbooks – Background of the Case

• Government Order: The owner of Deepthi Publications sought to quash a 2010 AP government order, meant to restrict private schools and colleges from publishing their books to tackle “piracy.”
• The order also directed all private colleges to purchase books prescribed by the CBSE and ICSE.
• Petition: The AP HC addressed a petition filed by Addala Sitamahalakshmi, owner of the Guntur-based Deepthi Publications. 
  • Deepthi Publications publishes maths and science books for school students and books for engineering entrance examinations.
• Criminal Case against the Publication House: A case was registered against Sitamahalakshmi in April 2011 under Sections 63 and 64 of the Copyright Act of 1957. 
  • Section 63: It states that anyone “knowingly” infringing or abetting the infringement of copyright in a work is liable to be punished with six months to three years of imprisonment, along with a fine of 50,000 to 1 lakh rupees.
  • Section 64: It deals with the police’s power to seize infringing copies and allows any police officer “not below the rank of a sub-inspector” to seize without a warrant if satisfied that the offence under Section 63 has been committed.
• Demand by Deepthi Publications: It asserted that their books were aligned with the CBSE and ICSE syllabus and contained exercises and objective questions designed to aid students in preparing for competitive exams. 
  • It demanded that the order should be deemed illegal, arbitrary, and unconstitutional and requested the court to instruct the AP government to refrain from taking any further action against her based on the order. 
  • Additionally,  it sought the annulment of a criminal case filed against her in 2011.

About Copyright

Copyright refers to the right given by the law to creators of literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works and producers of cinematograph films and sound recordings.

• It includes rights of reproduction, communication to the public, adaptation, and translation of a work. 
• The 1957 Act aims to safeguard creative works considered to be a creator’s intellectual property.
• Copyright Infringement: A copyrighted work will be considered “infringed” only if a substantial part is made use of without authorisation. 
  • In cases of infringement, the copyright owner can take legal action and is entitled to remedies such as injunctions and damages.

Copyright Law in India: Copyright Act 1957

• Genesis: The Act came into effect from January 1958. 
• About: It protects “original work” — a creative and independently created expression fixed in a tangible medium. 
• Alignment with International treaties: The Act conforms with the WIPO Copyright Treaty (“WCT”) and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (“WPPT”); 
• Copyright Office: Section 9 of the Copyright Act requires the establishment of an office to be called the Copyright Office for the Act. 
  • The Copyright Office is to be under the immediate control of a Registrar of Copyrights to be appointed by the Central Government.
• Salient Features: 
  • The law grants the creator/ author of the work the exclusive right to “use, reproduce, distribute, perform, and display their work”.
  • Unlike the case with patents, copyright protects the expressions and not the ideas. There is no copyright in an idea.
  • The law also protects transformative work which is a creative/ artistic work that takes existing material (text, music, art) and significantly modifies, reinterprets, or builds upon it to create something new and distinct. 

Ruling by the High Court

• Upholding of Publisher’s Actions Under Fair Use Doctrine: The court ruled that the publisher’s actions fell under the fair use doctrine under Section 52. 
  • It added that even if the books printed by it are assumed to be pirated copies of Akademi’s books, their actions would fall under the exception under Sections 52 (1) (a) and 52 (1) (h) of the Act.
    • Section 52: It lists acts that don’t constitute infringement, even in cases where one has a copyright over the work. 
    • Section 52(1)(a): It exempts “a fair dealing with any work” from being termed “infringement” if it’s for private or personal use, like research, criticism or review, or reporting of current events and affairs.
    • Section 52(1)(h): It exempts the publication of short passages from published literary or dramatic works in a collection intended for bona fide or genuine instructional use.
• Exempt of Textbooks from Copyright Act Due to Lack of Originality: Textbooks don’t fall under the copyright act since to qualify as a copyrighted work, it must be original. 
  • For example, an original literary, artistic, dramatic, or musical work. 
  • The books in question printed by the petitioner are of non-literary nature and hence, they would not fall within the ambit of Section 13 of the Copyright Act, 1957.
• Upholding Order to Safeguard Against Piracy: The court refrained from nullifying the order, stating that it was implemented to safeguard the Akademi from piracy and to secure the educational prospects of countless students. 
  • The court clarified that the order did not apply to the petitioner since its scope was directed towards private “schools and colleges” rather than a publishing house.

Earlier Cases of Copyright Infringement

• Copyright infringement by NCERT: The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), issued a warning against copyright infringement of its educational materials.
  • It stated that anyone who publishes NCERT textbooks for commercial sale or uses the NCERT textbook content in such publication, without obtaining the copyright permission from NCERT, shall be proceeded against in accordance with the Copyright Act 1957.

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• Chancellor Masters & Scholars Of The University of Oxford vs. Narendra Publishing House (2008):  In this case, Delhi HC dealt with a publishing house’s plea. 
• • It claimed their textbook, based on the syllabus prescribed by the J&K Board of Education for class 11, was being imitated in a book series published by one Narendra Publishing House.
  • Dismissing the claim, the HC held that mathematical questions are expressions of laws of nature. The discovery of such laws cannot confer monopoly to those who describe it. 
  • The reason is that language is a limited medium, which enables the description of such laws of nature in only a few ways.
• Eastern Book Company v. D.B. Modak, 2008: In this case, the SC held that work must involve the author’s selection, coordination, or arrangement of pre-existing data in a manner that results in a work of somewhat different character, rather than a mere verbatim reproduction.