Criminalization of copyrights infringements in the digital era with special reference to India

Abstract

The beginning of the Internet since 1970s and the commercialization of its use in 1990s has been a challenging era for the Law makers and the Intellectual Property Right holders/owners. The copyright protection in the digitalized technology has witnessed an economic setback to the copyright holder and its quick and simple accessibility; a boon to the violators. Digitalization has also enabled information to be easily stored, reproduced and transmitted through internet as the web 2.0 era has made information storage, sharing and collaboration easier. The digitalisation has made the cyberspace an interwoven virtual community. While the digitalization of copyright material has made the information access easy and available, it has rather posed complications, technical and non-technical hitches to the holders/owners in a multi-faced ways. Combating piracy i.e. mass piracy, counterfeiting, circumventing methods etc., have all challenged the existing laws. The international pressure of the copyright holders has pressured the states to pass various laws and under the ambit of the WIPO that brought WCT and WPPT, most of the states are proposing their laws to be at par with the international changes in the copyright law. The copyright protection had problems and challenges during all the phases of digital technology. The major changes that took place with serious concerns are in the two major phases' that are well known as Low-Tech and High-Tech Era. The further classification of the Digital Era can be basically divided into the Analog Phase and Digital phase which have further intensified the infringements with greater challenges to the law makers. However, it is found that states are slowly sliding from the civil remedy approach to that of criminalisation of the copyright law, aiming to fulfil the demands and rationale anguish of the copyright holders'. This change is seen rather in almost all the countries, as the copyright holders are keen for criminal law to prevail at least in few circumstances. In the US both these phases have seen various laws passed by the congress to criminalise copyright like the ACPA, RICO, NET, DMCA, Pro-IP Act etc. The European Union has also brought in changes in order to criminalise the copyright infringements with the Directive on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society and Directive on Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights along the lines of WIPO and TRIPs. India though is not a signatory to the WCT and WPPT; it amended the Copyright Law in the year 2012 and added section 65A, that criminalises the copyright infringement in the electronic/digital forms especially relating anti-circumvention and Rights Management Information. The criminalisation of copyright violation is shaping up in a new direction since the advancement of technology. The criminal liability is present either with the civil remedy or in addition to the civil remedy. The digital era has three fold violators i.e. the mass violators who violate copyright law for the commercial purpose, the user (individual users) and the new member is the Online Service Provider (OSP) who may have knowledge of copyright violations while providing services. Overall it can be observed that there is an overthrow of laws since Napsters (P2P) and in addition with the online hosting. As they pose newer challenges that are expected to have deadly effects on the copyright. In this paper the author would look into the changes in copyright law and its inclination towards criminalisation and its impact.