Law Minister Veerappa Moily has recently revealed that the Copyright Amendment Bill 2011 of India would be introduced in the forthcoming monsoon session of Indian Parliament. The proposed Bill has both positive and negative provisions.However, at least some action regarding upgrading the old Copyright Law of India has been taken though Techno Legal Issues of Copyright Law of India have still not got the attention of Indian Government and Indian Parliament.
Although the Copyright Law in India is suitably protecting the Copyrights of traditional works yet it has not been very successful in protecting online contents. This is the reason why Copyright Law of India needs urgent Amendments.
Copyright Law of India is incorporated in the Indian Copyrights Act, 1957. It is one of the best and most stringent laws of the World. While Copyright Law of India is a good piece of legislation it has yet to take care of issues arising out of Information and Communication technology (ICT). Use of ICT is changing the way Intellectual Property Rights in India (IPRs in India) are required to be protected in India and world wide.
Further, Plagiarism is omnipresent in Indian Legal Research Community. Law students and fresh law graduates do not wish to do the real hard work and take the shortcut of copy and paste. This is not only violating the Copyright Law of India but is also reflecting poorly upon the Legal Research Skills of India. We need Techno Legal IPR Skills Development in India at all levels and for all stakeholders.
There are many issues that Law Ministry of India and Ministry of Human Resource Development of India need to address before bringing Amendments to the Copyright Law of India.
