What Is Copyrights?
Who Can Claim Copyrights?
What Works Are Protected?
What Is Not Protected by Copyrights?
How to Secure Copyright
How Long Copyrights Protection Endures
Transfer of Copyrights
International Copyrights Protection
Copyrights Registration
Registration Procedures
Who May File an Application Form?
Application Forms

1: What Is Copyrights?

Copyrights is a form of protection provided to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works. The owner of copyrights has the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the following:

• To reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords;
• To prepare derivative works based upon the work;
• To distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
• To perform the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works;
• To display the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work; and
• In the case of sound recordings*, to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.

It is illegal for anyone to violate any of the rights provided by the copyrights law to the owner of copyrights. These rights, however, are not unlimited in scope, the copyrights law establishes limitations on these rights. In some cases, these limitations are specified exemptions from copyrights liability. One major limitation is of “fair use,” In other instances, the limitation takes the form of a “compulsory license” under which certain limited uses of copyrighted works are permitted upon payment of specified royalties and compliance with statutory conditions. For further information about the limitations of any of these rights, consult the copyrights law

2: Who Can Claim Copyrights?

Copyrights protection subsists from the time the work is created in fixed form. The copyrights in the work of authorship immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work. Only the author or those deriving their rights through the author can rightfully claim copyrights.

In the case of a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment; the employer and not the employee is considered to be the author, if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire.

The authors of a joint work are co-owners of the copyrights in the work, unless there is an agreement to the contrary.

Note:

• • Mere ownership of a book, manuscript, painting, or any other copy or phonorecord does not give the possessor the copyrights. The transfer of ownership of any material object that embodies a protected work does not of itself convey any rights in the copyrights

3: What Works Are Protected?

Copyrights protects “original works of authorship” that are fixed in a tangible form of expression. The fixation need not be directly perceptible so long as it may be communicated with the aid of a machine or device. Copyrightable works include the following categories:

1. literary works;
2. musical works, including any accompanying words
3. dramatic works, including any accompanying music
4. pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works\
5. motion pictures and other audiovisual works
6. sound recordings
7. architectural works

These categories should be viewed broadly. For example, computer programs and most “compilations” may be registered as “literary works”.

4: What Is Not Protected by Copyrights?

Several categories of material are generally not eligible for copyrights protection. These include among others:

• Works that have not been fixed in a tangible form of
• Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, discoveries, or devices, as distinguished from a description, explanation, or illustration
• Works consisting entirely of information that is common property and containing no original authorship (for example: standard calendars, height and weight charts, tape measures and rulers, and lists or tables taken from public documents or other common sources)

5: How to Secure a Copyrights?

Copyrights Secured Automatically upon Creation
The way in which copyrights protection is secured is frequently misunderstood, registration is not compulsory to secure copyrights. There are, however, certain definite advantages to registration. Copyrights is secured automatically when the work is created, and a work is “created” when it is fixed in a copy or phonorecord for the first time. “Copies” are material objects from which a work can be read or visually perceived either directly or with the aid of a machine or device, such as books, manuscripts, sheet music, film, videotape, or microfilm. “Phonorecords” are material objects embodying fixations of such as cassette tapes, CDs, or LPs. Thus, for example, a song (the “work”) can be fixed in sheet music (“copies”) or in phonograph disks (“phonorecords”), or both. If a work is prepared over a period of time, the part of the work that is fixed on a particular date constitutes the created work as of that date

6: How Long Copyrights Protection Endures?

A work that was created (fixed in tangible form for the first time) protected from the moment of its creation and is ordinarily given a term enduring for the author’s life plus an additional 50 years after the author’s death. In the case of “a joint work prepared by two or more authors who did not work for hire,” the term lasts for 50 years after the last surviving author’s death. For works made for hire, and for anonymous and pseudonymous works the duration of copyrights will be 50 years from publication.

7: Transfer of Copyrights?

Any or all of the copyrights owner’s exclusive rights or any subdivision of those rights may be transferred, but the transfer of exclusive rights is not valid unless that transfer is in writing and signed by the owner of the rights conveyed or such owner’s duly authorized agent.

8: Copyrights Registration?

• In general, copyrights registration is a legal formality. However, registration is not a condition of copyrights protection, but it establishes prima facie evidence in court of the validity of the copyrights and of the facts stated in the certificate.

9: Who May File an Application Form?

The following persons are legally entitled to submit an application form:

• The author. This is either the person who actually created the work or, if the work was made for hire, the employer or other person for whom the work was prepared.
• The copyrights claimant. The copyrights claimant is defined in Copyrights regulations as either the author of the work or a person or organization that has obtained ownership of all the rights under the copyrights initially belonging to the author. This category includes a person or organization who has obtained by contract the right to claim legal title to the copyrights in an application for copyrights registration.
• The owner of exclusive right(s).Under the law, any of the exclusive rights that make up a copyrights and any subdivision of them can be transferred and owned separately, even though the transfer may be limited in time or place of effect. The term “copyrights owner” with respect to any one of the exclusive rights contained in a copyrights refers to the owner of that particular right. Any owner of an exclusive right may apply for registration of a claim in the work.
• The duly authorized agent of such author, other copyrights claimant, or owner of exclusive right(s). Any person authorized to act on behalf of the author, other copyrights claimant, or owner of exclusive rights may apply for registration.

There is no requirement that applications be prepared or filed by an attorney.

10: APPLICATION FORMS

Fill-In Forms Available

All forms and Fee schedule are available on Website under the heading of Copyrights Rules, 1967.