COPYRIGHT IN PUBLISHING

Copyright is the bedrock of the publishing business, and awareness of its central principle – The creator as the first owner of copyright – is essential at all levels. The intellectual property (IP) owned or controlled by a publisher includes its copyrights and licences. The publisher may own some copyrights outright, for example in case of reference works, or have acquired licenses from their authors. Copyright is a form of protection, giving authors and other creative artists legal ownership of their work – that is, it establishes their work as personal, exclusive property; and because it is their property they have absolute right to sell or license it to others. It is these exclusive rights that make an author’s works attractive to publishers. The publisher wants sole and exclusive rights from the authors, to publish their works and sell it as widely as possible. Without the protection of copyright, authors would not be able to grant this exclusive right and could not demand payment for their efforts and publisher would not risk issuing a book which if successful, could instantly copied or plundered by competitors. Copyright stimulates innovation in a market economy, which protects the author’s reputation and is the common foundation for publishing and other cultural industries. In the last few years issues to do with the protection of data and cases dealing with human rights such as privacy and access to information have grown in prominence. The entire landscape of publishing has been altered by the digital technology and the web, and as a result ground rules have all been changed. The principle tenet of the Berne convection which is one of the two attempts to provide copyright equivalence across national boundaries, remaind that of giving the creator the exclusive right of authorizing the reproduction of his or her works. Copyright and other regulations to protect intellectual property have been put under enormous pressure by the sheer ease with which we can access vast amounts of other people’s intellectual property. The web has also brought into sharp focus the difficulty of controlling copyright land other intellectual property measures by national laws. The latest decision of the US Supreme Court where the concept of international exhaustion of rights was endorsed by the court as it supported the parallel imports of copyrighted works. Kirtaeng versus John Wiley & Sons, Inc No 11-697(U.S Supreme court March 19, 2013) The US Supreme Court on March 19, 2013 delivered its landmark judgment wherein it has consented to the legality of purchasing copyrighted works abroad and bringing them back to the U.S for resale without the permission of the copyright owner. In the present case the petitioner i.e. Kerrsaeng had moved from Thailand to the USA for studying Mathematics and thereafter with the help of his family and friends he arranged for English- version textbooks sold in Thailand shops at a price lower than the price of the same textbooks sold in the US market. Thereafter the petitioner sold the books at a profit in the USA. The respondent John Wiley & Sons sold the impugned textbooks through its subsidiary named Wiley Asia and also sold versions of the said textbooks in USA. Aggrieved by the aforesaid act of Kirsaeng, the Respondent approached the U.S district court and accused the petitioner of infringing its exclusive right to distribute and import its copyrighted books. Kirtsaeng contended that the impugned textbooks were “lawfully made “and hence legitimately acquired. The “first sale” doctrine which permitted the importation and resale of text books without the Copyright Owner’s further permission. The U.S district court was of view that Kirtsaeng could not assert its defense as the Doctrine of ‘first sale” did not apply to goods manufactured abroad. Even the second circuit confirmed the decision of the District Court and was of geographical limitation and was applicable to even those works made in the Jurisdictions where the U.S laws were not applicable. The supreme court while delivering its landmark judgment further observed that under the Common law, the Doctrine of “first sale” within its purview did not include geographical limitation and even legislative history of the Copyright owners from bring the importation of low priced copies in to the U.S, where they compete with the higher priced editions which the copyright owners makes available for sale in the country. The laws surrounding publishing are many and complex. The current version of the Indian copyright law is based on the principle of economics and price differentiation based on markets is an economically viable strategy. It enables the consumers to purchase books at an affordable rate and meet their academic requirements. However, in order to modernize Indian copyright law it should incorporate the provisions necessary like encryption and other technological techniques’ for authors against unauthorized dissemination on the internet and hacking. They should be able to enforce those rights in the courts. Some markets in publishing regard copyright as an unfair trading standard kept in place by greedy publishers, ignoring the fact that most right holders are authors rather than publishers. Publishers need to give more thought to technical protection measures, as well as wrestling with the growing problem of community publishing, user generated content ,blogs and both opportunities and threats posed by the web. Copyright is not perpetual. Generally the legal term of copyright in a work lasts for 60 years from the end of the year in which its creator died after that the work is public domain. Major digitization projects are being carried out by commercial publishers, libraries or technology companies such as Google. The latter is in the process of digitizing out- of –copyright works in the collections of major institutions including the New-York Public Library and the Bodleian library in Oxford. Yet the production of ideas and information by authors and publishers is very expensive in time and money. Publishers earn their living by selling ideas and information and make efforts to protect it from illicit copying. The technical means of controlling usage is broadly referred to as Digital rights Management (DRM) which has not been very successful so far. There is also the issue of authors who like to see their work more widely disseminated and feel the present system of copyright does not adequately meet their needs. Creative common which was founded in 2001 is an initiative to enable authors to offer their work on different terms to the usual publisher license. It does not mean giving up copyright but offering some of your rights to any member of the public but only on certain conditions. The objective is for more people to have the opportunity to see their work. In the area of journals publishing, open access movement has gathered pace, which argues public funded research notably in the fields of science and medicine, should be freely available. Some mainstream publication offers open access option for authors. Even open content model relies on the retention of copyright. The initial decision to release open content license is made by the copyright holder. It is easy to imagine why an individual or a public sector institution may choose to release content openly. The open ideology may coincide with government policies for accessing public information, or with the collaborative nature of some educational research. The difficulty for commercial publishers is in assessing the extent to which open digital content models present a threat or an opportunity. Some analysts argue that commercial markets may be built on the back of open release. Making some content available openly may generate publicity or marketing benefits, enhance brand reputation, or lead to the commercialization of added benefit services or enhanced paid for content If digital publication becomes a norm for books as well as journals there can be further shifts to the copyright regime. Digital publishing adds considerable uncertainty’s to who will control intellectual property, publishers or technology players such as Google – and how it will be controlled. Since copyright is also a cultural idea, rooted in the country of its origin, it is equally important to view it from different facets. Publishers and authors need to work together to understand copyright and locate it within the changing nature of the publishing industry.