Scope Of S.31D Of The Copyright Act

Introduction

The Copyright Amendment Act was introduced in 2012 with the primary objective of establishing a just framework for the administration of copyright and sharing revenue to protect ownership rights over copyrights. One of the most important change brought in by this amendment was through S.31D, which provided that any broadcasting organization which wants to broadcast a literary, musical or sound recording already published may do so subject to various conditions mentioned in the section. The provision also provided the Appellate Board with the power to determine the royalty rates in cases of radio broadcasting, and also provided differential royalty rates for radio and television broadcasting and required the broadcaster to broadcast the work without any substantial alteration, giving credits to the original author of the work. The scope of the section was further expanded through a DIPP memorandum dated December 2016 by which online broadcasting too was