|
The department
of industry and policy promotion is hopeful of finalising its proposals
for amending the Indian Copyright Act (1957) by December-end, 2002
to strengthen the legislative framework for checking growing infringement
of copyrights.
According to
ministry officials the second and final meeting of the core group
constituted for the purpose would be held after the monsoon session
of Parliament. “We have set a target of finalising our proposals
by the end of the current calendar year.”
The US-based
International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) is preparing
a set of proposals on behalf of some sectors of the Indian industry
for the department to consider. According to IIPA president Eric
Smith, the proposals would be submitted to the core group, headed
by industry secretary V Govindarajan.
The Indian Copyright
Act was last amended in 1994. The amended Act was implemented on
May 1995 with the main purpose of extending more effective protection
to computer programmes, literary works and for the protection of
all computer generated works.
According to
officials, in the last seven years piracy has increased several
times in all areas including pharmaceuticals, music, software, entertainment
and publications. Internet piracy, which was unheard of till a few
years ago, was also increasing in the country. “The idea of
the new amendment Act is to take care of all problems which have
come up and is affecting the industry.” While there are no
estimates of revenue losses occurring on account of copyright infringement
in the country, it is said to be running into several crore every
year. Mr Smith said that his alliance had estimated a loss of $345.4
million to US companies due to copyright infringement in India.
“The amount would be much higher in the case of losses suffered
by the Indian industry,” Mr Smith said.
The amendment in the Copyright Act will have provisions for an effective
legislative and administrative framework which could act as deterrents
for infringement, officials said.
Mr Smith said
that to create an effective enforcement regime, it was important
to have strong political will to crack down on pirates. The police
should have legal power and willingness to conduct secret raids
and seize and destroy all infringing products, he said.
The punishment
for piracy should be severe and criminal proceedings should be fast,
he added.
Ministry officials said that all stakeholders including industry
representatives, lawyers and other ministries were being consulted
for firming up the proposals for the amendment Act.
|
