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Animesh Rose   05 June 2020

Copyright infringement

Hi,
Is copying texts from government websites and reports and pasting it elsewhere amount to copyright violations. For an example If I copy census data from the census report and use the same text as it is in the Wikipedia article. Will it amount to copyright infringement?


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 3 Replies

AFZAL VOHRA (Civil & Revenue Lawyer)     05 June 2020

No. Unless it is clearly mentioned that the "contents are subject to Copyright" OR "Copyrights are reserved", etc.. 

Otherwise, information available on the public domain can be used anywhere but with wise mind.  

1 Like

Nihal Thareja   05 June 2020

Hello sir,

Copying of census data from the census report would not amount to infringement of a copyright however using or copying content from Wikipedia is subject to violation as Wikipedia's textual content is copyrighted, and can only be reused under the terms of their licensing requirements which has been provided under the Wikipedia’s legal policy.

Generally, the reproduction or usage of any work which has been published in any form and made available for the public to access does not amount to infringement of a copyright, provided the author has no copyright over it

As per section 13(1)(q)(iii) of the Copyrights Act, 1957 –

 The reproduction or publication of the report of any committee, commission, council, board or other like body appointed by the Government if such report has been laid on the Table of the Legislature, unless the reproduction or publication of such report is prohibited by the Government; would fall under the ambit of exception to copyright infringement.

If the work falls under the scope of fair use and like provisions such as fair dealing in any work for private or personal use, including research/criticism or review/reporting of current events or current affairs it would not fall under the ambit of violation of a copyright.

 

Hope I was able to solve your query!

Regards
Nihal Thareja

1 Like

Animesh Rose   05 June 2020

Thank you so much. you all were great 🙏

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