Software Piracy and Intellectual Property in India
Over the years, the globe has witnessed rapid advancements in information innovation, various inventions, and digitalization. This progress has also resulted in the rise of crimes and illegal digital activities such as hacking and programming theft. Theft has soiled software companies, posing a threat not only to product makers but also to the product’s customers. The advancement of technology has made it easier for anyone to duplicate projects, reproduce them, and sell them.
The use of computer software has made people’s lives easier, and manual labor has been transformed into specialized labor. However, misuse of such tools has resulted in important concerns, such as theft, which is a persistent issue in several countries throughout the world.
It is an undeniable fact that software piracy and related violations are on the rise all over the world in this century as a result of technological advancements and digitalization, with credit due to the Internet. This issue has now become a global concern as a result of the Internet. Because of the web’s encroachment on protected software, it has become a costly issue for both the owner/maker and the customer of such programming.
Software Piracy – Intellectual Property
The unapproved duplication or distribution of protected software is known as software piracy. Duplicating, downloading, sharing, selling, or introducing various duplicates onto an individual’s or company’s PCs should be possible. Software theft, according to Nasscom, is defined as the use, proliferation, or distribution of a product without the express written permission of the product originator.
Software piracy is defined as a demonstration in which individual copies, downloads, provides, sells, or introduces a duplicate of a product without the product creator’s authorization, where the product creator has the selective right of copyright. When a person buys software, he is essentially purchasing a license to use the product, not the copyright. India is one of the world’s most populous Copyright insurance is offered to software programs, and anyone who uses them without permission will be charged with theft for unauthorized use of copyright materials. In any case, duplicating software for the sake of backup isn’t prohibited, but any demonstration that violates the copyright holder’s selective privileges will result in legal action being taken against them.
Any outcome of human intellect that the law protects against unapproved use by others is referred to as intellectual property. Intellectual property ownership necessarily confers a limited monopoly on protected property. Patents, copyright, trademarks, and trade secrets are the four types of intellectual property. Intellectual property rights are the rights granted to individuals over their mental works. For a set amount of time, they usually grant the inventor exclusive rights to exploit his or her creation.
India, as a member to the TRIPs Agreement, has changed its laws to ensure that intellectual property is protected to the highest standard possible. The product is treated as a scholarly work in India, and Copyright protection has been granted to it. Because the current patent law is not in any way prepared to extend its protection to programming, programming has been protected by the Indian Copyright Act, 1957.
Legal Framework under Indian Copyright Act, 1957
Software piracy can be attempted under both civil and criminal legislation in India, according to the Copyright Act. The minimum sentence for infringing on a software copyright is seven days, while the maximum sentence is three years. The legal fines range from 50,000 rupees to 200,000 rupees. Sections of the Information Technology Act of 2000 can also be used depending on the piracy situation.
Section 13 (1) (a) of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 offer security to all types of unique works. The PC program will be remembered as the Act’s one-of-a-kind artwork, and its infringement will result in genuine corrective and civil actions. The 1994 amendment also included provisions for harsh punishment if evidence of unauthorized use of protected software products could be shown. The Act expressly states that any demonstration completed by an unapproved individual with a product that was legally required to be completed by an approved licensed individual counts as a demonstration of encroachment. The Act includes ordinary remedies such as orders, penalties, and other administrative actions adopted by regulatory authorities to ensure the security of protected software.
Section 51 (a) (ii) of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 states that when an individual allows any spot to be utilized for communication of the protected software or other work to the general population for creating benefit this will add up to the encroachment of copyright. The expression “communication to the public” is characterized in Sec. 2(ff) of the Act as hearing, appreciating, or seeing the issue of protected work however it comes up short on the risk of the Internet Service Providers as it doesn’t give any express arrangements to envelop the responsibility of Service suppliers like different nations.
The Act also punishes persons, friends, and organizations that provide Internet administrations, as well as chiefs individually or as a board whose authorization was taken for the commission of the offense. There is a different section managing the “offense” which incorporates the demonstration of utilization and furthermore abetting the utilization of encroachment of protected work. This part punishes both the client and abettor of the encroached protected work. The Act also penalizes the company in its Sec. 69(1) which states that every person running, managing the affairs of the company and responsible for the affairs of the company will be punished for using or abetting the infringement of copyrighted work.
By breaking down the courts of the digitally advanced countries, the courts in India have made distinct strides for the protection of protected PC programs. The court has awarded a monstrous measure of harm to the offended party against the respondent. In Microsoft Corporation v. Deepak Raval, the Delhi High Court considered the current realities of the case, in which the respondent has encroached on the offended party’s protected work, such as Microsoft Office 2000 and Microsoft Office 9, and held that there is a desperate need for piracy security in the nation due to the growing risk of encroachment of protected material, and requested that the respondent pay enormous damages to the offended party. In the case of Microsoft Corporation v. Mr. Kiran and Anr., similar observations were made. Occasionally, the court granted a directive prohibiting professional organizations from using, storing, receiving, or selling protected content transmitted through their websites.
In India, intellectual property law allows for the lawful use of protected work to be replicated. However, with advancements in data innovation and continued digitalization, the pirated software sector has grown to a greater extent. The incorporation of the international standard into public law has significantly strengthened the law in India, as evidenced by software security.
India is a major location for pirated software distribution. India, on the other hand, has a strong and strict intellectual property law, yet software piracy is rampant there. There are a variety of reasons for this, including the lack of legal enforcement of intellectual property laws, a lack of awareness among persons about intellectual property laws, the inaccessibility of the product in terms of quantity and estimation, and so on.
***Other Articles***
– You could see How To Register Trademark in China here.
– You could visit here to see Procedure of Trademark in China.
– You could visit here to check Required documents of filing trademark in China.
Contact AAA IPRIGHT: Email: [email protected]
Or sending your inquiry by filling the form:
