Guide to Copyright Protection in India

Copyright is the protection provided by law to authors of original works. It is a bundle of rights including, inter alia, rights of reproduction, communication to the public, adaptation, and translation of the work. There could be slight variations in the nature of the rights depending on the type of work. Copyright in reality englobes two separate types of rights: “Moral Rights” are the inalienable rights of an author of a work to be recognised as such, and to prohibit changes to this work which might be detrimental to his or her reputation; “Economic Rights” are the exclusive rights to exploit commercially and distribute, reproduce and adapt the work. While the former rights are inalienable and therefore always remain as a privilege of the author(s), the latter can be sold or licensed.