The law of copyright focuses on protecting a creator's
rights in original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works,
cinematograph films and sound recordings. It also confers rights on
the copyright holder against unauthorised reproduction,
communication to the public, adaptation and translation of his/her
work. Such protection, however, is not absolute, but comes with
certain confines keeping in mind the larger public interest. One
such limitation to ownership in a copyrighted work is carved by the
Doctrine of "Fair Dealing".
While the term "fair dealing" finds mention in the
Copyright Act, 1957 ("Act"), which is the law governing
copyright in India, it has not been defined by the legislature,
often leading to disputes concerning the ambit of this term. While
dealing with exceptions to copyright infringement, the Act refers
to the term "fair dealing" to exempt certain acts from
the ambit of copyright infringement. These include use of
copyrighted works for the
