SOFTWARE PIRACY AND THE COPYRIGHT LAW IN INDIA

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Software piracy is a serious issue that has been affecting software companies for decades. The progress and development of technology in the past few years has been so humongous that the digital technology forms an integral part of each and every individual. The not much envisaged notion of digital technology impacting the Copyright Law was prepended into the Act of 1957 in the form of various amendments. Any legislator would not have contemplated of computer programme being included in literary work before we could enter the digital era. Our computers, laptops, mobile phones etc. would only be showpieces worth to be displayed without any utility provided the intellectuals who make such devices work wouldn’t have invested sufficient amount of skill and labour to make them work through the various words, codes and schemes.

 

The term software is often heard and read but it has not been defined under the Copyright Act of 1957. Software in layman’s language can be understood as the instruction, direction, command or order given to the electronic device in a written form through which the electronic device acts upon it accordingly. The language that the electronic device understands is not similar to a layman’s understanding because the devices understand language that is machine friendly and machine readable. The art of writing such a language can only be done by the one who has the expertise to make an electronic device operate by such a unique language. The intellectuals who are the writers of this unique language are known as software programmers or software developers. Various languages such as Java, Python, Ruby, C, C++ and many more are the languages that changed the perspective towards literary works which were once upon a time thought to mean only stories, poems etc.

 

Information technology has progressed beyond leaps and bounds and one of the major reasons is the software programming of such technologies. Software based technology has made lives easy and complacent. The digital era has caused the software industry to expand beyond one’s imagination. The absolute dependency on software from the point of view of business, travel, banking, gaming or any market that can be named revolves around software in some form or the other. Along with the rapid expansion in the software industry there is also one major threat that the industry faces and that is software piracy. 

Software piracy is not just restricted to a particular territory but is a global issue and it is a growing concern for many countries. Today the world is fighting to control software piracy due to the enormous losses faced by the companies that put in so much of resources such as time, energy, money etc. to develop a software and in no time, it’s found that this software gets pirated. What is piracy? In simple words piracy means the unauthorized use of work that is of someone else. Neither software nor piracy is defined under the Copyright Act, 1957.

 

Internationally, software piracy laws are stringent and punitive in nature but in India it does not get the attention at the national level due to more engaging issues at hand. In India computer programmes are protected under copyright.

According to Section 2(o) - “literary works includes computer programmes, tables and compilations including computer [databases];[1]

According to Section 2(ffc) – “computer programme” means a set of instructions expressed in words, codes, schemes or in any other form, including a machine-readable medium, capable of causing a computer to perform a particular task or achieve a particular result;[2]

Though software is an integral part of computer programming, the Act has not defined software which leaves a grey area while copyrighting software’s.

Section 3(k) of the Patents Act, 1970 states that computer programme per se cannot be patented.

As per Section 14 of the Act, Copyright in computer programme means-

As per Section 14 of the Act, Copyright in computer programme means-

(1) The exclusive right subject to the provisions of this Act, to door authorize the doing of any of the following acts inrespect of a work or any substantial part thereof, namely:—

 

(i) In the case of a computer programme, —

To do any of the acts specified in clause (a); (ii) to sell or give on commercial rental or offer for sale or for commercial rental any copy of the computer programme:" Provided that such commercial rental does not apply in respect of computer programmes where the programme itself is not the essential object of the rental.[1]

Digital technology is advancing every second but the laws still have a conventional outlook even though it forms a major loss to the economy. Copyright law has never been in the limelight to catch the pace with the software pirates. Software piracy is an issue but the importance given to this issue is not much but as technology is advancing we need to pay attention towards this issue as well.

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1 The Copyright Act, 1957 (14 of 1957) S.2

2 The Copyright Act, 1957 (14 of 1957) S.2

3 The Copyright Act, 1957 (14 of 1957) S. 14

 

I tried to identify the reasons for software piracy being rampant and my major findings were that the software’s are expensive and there are many who are experts in breaking the coding’s. The pirated versions are free over the World Wide Web and there are no stringent laws to stop them. Majority of the people in India are not aware about repercussions of pirated software’s while some of the users do not know the difference between the original and the pirated versions.

My suggestions to curb the issue of Software Piracy would be:

• The need of the hour is to have stringent laws on software piracy that can be effectively implemented
• Software companies need to interact with the users and create awareness on software piracy.
• The consequences of software piracy should be highlighted on the social media platform.
• Software companies need to work on a model where software’s are available at an affordable rate.
• The laws need to be upgraded with changing times because technology is advancing at a greater pace as compared to the existing laws.