Copyrights, Fair Dealing, and Fair Use in India

Fair dealing provisions under the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 as amended in 2012 exempt certain activities from the purview of copyright infringement. While certain exceptions mentioned under Section 52(1) of the Copyright Act are applicable to all kinds of works in which copyright subsists, the applicability of certain provisions are restricted to specific works. The following table identifies the various fair dealing and fair use provisions under the Copyright and its applicability to specific works:
 

Sections Provisions Applicability
52(1)(a) Fair dealing All works
52(1)(a) Private or personal use, including research All works
52(1)(a) Criticism or review All works
52(1)(a) Reporting of current events and current affairs All works
52(1)(aa) Making copies for back-up Computer programmes
52(1)(ab) Obtaining information for inter-operability Computer programmes
52(1)(ac) Observation, study or testing Computer programmes
52(1)(ad) Making copies Computer programmes
52(1)(b) and 52(1)(c) Transient or incidental storage All works
52(1)(d) Reproduction in judicial proceedings All works
52(1)(e) Reproduction by Legislature All works
52(1)(f) Reproduction for  obtaining certified copy All works
52(1)(g) Reading  or reciting reasonable extracts in public Literary or dramatic works
52(1)(h) Publication in collection of non-copyright matter Literary or dramatic works
52(1)(i) Reproduction by teacher or pupil All works
52(1)(i) Reproduction as part of question paper or answer paper All works
52(1)(j) Performance in an education institution All works
52(1)(k) A recording to be heard in an enclosed room or non-profit club Sound recordings
52(1)(l) Performance by an amateur club Literary, musical or dramatic work
52(1)(m) Reproduction in a newspaper, magazine or article All works
52(1)(n) Storage by library All works
52(1)(o) Storage by library Literary works
52(1)(p) Reproduction for purposes of research, private study or publication Literary, dramatic or musical works
52(1)(q) Any matter published in official Gazette All works
52(1)(q) Act of a Legislature Literary work
52(1)(q) Report of any committee, commission, council, board appointed by Government Literary work
52(1)(q) Any judgement or order by court Literary work
52(1)(r) Production or publication of translation of any Acts or Orders by the Government Literary work
52(1)(s)  52(1)(t)
52(1)(u)
52(1)(v)
Publishing any painting, drawing or photograph of a work
Inclusion in any cinematographic film of a work
Artistic work
52(1)(w) Making three dimension object from two dimensional work  Artistic work
 
52(1)(x) Reconstruction Architectural drawings
52(1)(y) Exhibition Cinematographic films
52(1)(z) Storage Sound recordings and Cinematographic films
52(1)(za) Performance in religious ceremony or ceremony held by Central Government, Statement Government or local authority or marriages Literary, musical, dramatic works or sound recordings
52(1)(zb) Conversion of copyrighted books/ materials into accessible format for the disabled
 
All works
52(1)(zc) Importation of promotional materials Literary or artistic works

Authored by: Nithin V Kumar, BananaIP Counsels
Image source or Attribution here, governing license CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0

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