Books are a treasure of mysteries. The words penned down by the writer allows the reader to understand the perspective of the writer. There is a lot of chances that an idea of a book written by someone can be copied and used as work by an unauthorised person. So, it is important to get copyright on their work. In India there are Intellectual property rights provided to the people to protect their creative and inventive work from being used by any unauthorised person. The Copyright Act, 1957 lays down the provisions with protects the rights of the author or writer of the book. Under Section 13 of the act specifies that the author of literary work that is his/her original work will be entitled to copyright and will be given exclusive rights. The rights given to the author under Copyright law are reproduce his/her work, sell it to the public, circulate or distribute his work to the public or make adaptation of the books. It also restricts any person’s work from being used without permission of the copyright holder.

When does use of a book amount to copyright Infringement: If any person uses any copyrighted work without the permission of the copyright holder (which is usually the author), then that person will be liable for copyright infringement.  Literary work that includes books has the following exclusive rights granted to it in India:

• Right to issue copies of his/her work to the public.
• Right to reproduce.
• Right of Communication to public.
• Right of Public Performance.
• Right to make a cinematograph film or a music recording from the book.
• Right of adaptation of the book or translation of the book.

If any of the above acts are performed by any unauthorised person, then it will amount to copyright infringement. A book is said to be copied and comes under the purview of copyright infringement when there is substantial similarity with the story, events, character, plot, etc. of the copyrighted book and that the person has access to the book.

Concept of Substantial similarity:

In cases of infringement in case of a published book, the assessment of it depends on the substantial similarity of it with the other book. It is said to be infringement if the work of book in question is substantially like the copyrighted book from the point of view of a reader.

The similarity between the two books cab be found if an ordinary reader finds it similar just by reading both the books and he/she feels that one book is like another. The similarities found in the book must be substantive and similar. It can be found in the plot, character, story, events, or any part of the book. Dissimilarities does not remove the question of infringement in these cases. The books are broken down into different parts and some tests are done by the professional to determine whether the book is copyrighted or not. So, there must be substantial and similar work in the book that is in question and if an ordinary reader finds similarity in them just by reading them, then it is a case of copyright infringement. 

Aishwarya Says:

I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.

If you are interested in participating in the same, do let me know.

Do follow me on Facebook, Twitter  Youtube and Instagram.

The copyright of this Article belongs exclusively to Ms. Aishwarya Sandeep. Reproduction of the same, without permission will amount to Copyright Infringement. Appropriate Legal Action under the Indian Laws will be taken.

If you would also like to contribute to my website, then do share your articles or poems at adv.aishwaryasandeep@gmail.com

We also have a Facebook Group Restarter Moms for Mothers or Women who would like to rejoin their careers post a career break or women who are enterpreneurs.

We are also running a series Inspirational Women from January 2021 to March 31,2021, featuring around 1000 stories about Indian Women, who changed the world. #choosetochallenge