Big Content doesn’t like proposed amendments to Indian Copyright Law
The last major revision to Indian Copyright Law was in 1957. It has seen a number of amendments since, the last one in 1999. These laws have not kept up with the changing nature of the role of technology in the distribution of copyrighted material. India recently proposed amendments (pdf) to the law to address these changes and to bring Indian Copyright Law into compliance with the WIPO Internet Treaties (pdf).
As discussed in this article at Ars Technica, the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), representing Big Content in the US (MPAA, RIAA etc.) is not happy with the proposed amendments. Their main complaint is about India’s take on the DRM anticircumvention provisions. The amendment allows the circumvention of DRM if the intended use is not infringing. For example, end users can rip a DRM protected DVD for personal use without breaking the law. While this seems to be fair and is in complicance with the WIPO Internet Treaties, the DMCA, an equivalent law in the US holds that circumventing DRM for any use is illegal. Clearly, it serves the purposes of Big Content well. Under the Indian version of the law, the onus would be on copyright holders to determine if a circumvention was an infringement.
My main take away was the influence Big Content has on government policy in the US. Apart from laws like the DMCA, parts of which go overboard in their attempt to protect the interests of copyright holders, they also heavily influence creation of the “Priority Watch List” of the US which includes India, China and even Canada. Formulating unbiased policy is a real challenge and I’m glad India got it right in this case.
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