Draft Copyright Amendment Rules, 2019

Recently, Draft Copyright (Amendment Rules), 2019 was released by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

• The amendments are being brought in to bring the Copyright Act on par with other relevant legislations and to ensure it is in sync with the technological advancements in the current digital era.
• The copyright regime in India is governed by the Copyright Act, 1957 and the Copyright Rules,2013.
• The Copyright Rules, 2013 were last amended in 2016 through the Copyright Amendment Rules, 2016.

Proposals in Draft Rules

• Setting up an Appellate Board to replace the Copyright Board.
  
  • The Chairman and other members of the Board will be appointed as per the provisions of the Trade Marks Act, 1999,
• It also proposes to amend the manner in which copyright societies fix their tariff schemes.
  
  • A copyright Society is a legal body which protects or safeguards the interest of owners of the work by giving assurance to the creative authors of the commercial management of their works.
  • These societies issue licences and collects royalties in accordance with a tariff scheme.
• DPIIT has proposed in the amendments that when fixing its tariff the copyright society may consider, “cross-sectional tariff comparisons, economic research, the nature and scope of the use of the work, the commercial value of the rights in use and the benefits to licensees”.
• The amendments propose to make it mandatory for copyright societies to publish “the annual transparency” report for each financial year on its Website.