Why should you know Copyright?

When you do some literary, dramatic, musical , artistic film recording, painting, a photograph, a poem or record any sound or song which is unique and has never been done before by any person, then you definitely do not want that somebody else copy your creativity, but it should not mean that you shall conceal your creative works from everyone. After all, you must want some kinds of reward for your work and your work should reach to the society at large. Therefore, there must be some system through which protect your work can be protected from being copied so that authors, artist etc. Can be rewarded and encouraged to do more creative work which leads to value addition.

In India, Copyright Act, 1957 protects the creative work of authors. Copyright is an exclusive right given by law to the authors, composers, and artist to reproduce the work for publishing and selling them to public. Copyright is just like an asset which you can sell to someone else for consideration.

Copyright protection is even more important in the current situation because of the emergence of the online medium to shares your creative work. Now, to copy a unique work is very easy, what you just need to do Ctrl+C, how beautiful these two words to plagiarist whose work just to do Copy and Paste. Piracy has become a global problem due to the rapid advances in technology. In general, it is illegal to copy a material in which copyright subsists without owner permission, but still there are some exceptions and limitations to these rights.One of such exception is the doctrine of Fair Use.Fair use means you can copy or extract quotations from the work but not the copy of substantial work is permitted

One thing which you should understand that copyright does not protect the idea, concept, styles or techniques. For example, you have a wonderful idea to write a book. You have conceptualised everything. How unique your idea is but it can not be copyrighted unless you write down your idea on a piece of paper.

One good thing about copyright laws is that copyright registration is not mandatory. The moment you put your work into material form, it gets protected automatically under Copyright Laws.

Therefore, Understanding what a copyright is -- or is not -- is the first step before starting any work

Author: Dushyant Sharma

Hey there, I'm Dushyant Sharma. With the extensive knowledge I've gained in past 8 years, I have been creating content on various subjects such as banking, insurance, telecom, and all the important registration and licensing processes for various companies. I'm here to help everyone with my expertise in these areas through my articles.