Celebrating 20 Years of IP Excellence

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The Indian Singers Rights Association v. Chapter 25 Bar and Restaurant

The Indian Singers Rights Association v. Chapter 25 Bar and Restaurant Citation:CS (OS) 2068/2015 & IA No. 14261/2015 Facts The Defendant in this case, Chapter 25 Bar and Restaurant during the month of April 2015 had been illegally communicating to the public numerous songs containing performances of various member singers of the Plaintiff copyright society, Indian Singers Rights Association (ISRA), without obtaining appropriate clearance from ISRA and paying the requisite royalty fee. ISRA had issued a legal notice against the Defendant…

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The featured image shows the symbol of copyright in purple colour on a white background.The post is about the recent allegation of copyright infringement against the short movie 'kriti'. To know more, please click here.

Kriti vs Bob

  The latest development in the copyright dispute between the makers of short films 'Kriti' and 'Bob' is discussed in this post. To know more about this copyright dispute which was published in an earlier post, please click here. The turbulence between Shirish Kunder’s 'Kriti' and Aneel Neupane’s 'Bob' finally seems to have reached its climax with the comeback of KRITI on YouTube. Neupane’s allegations of copyright infringement had infuriated Kunder, who claimed that there was no scope for any such copy…

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Udta Punjab and Online Piracy of Bollywood Movies

  Udta Punjab, the recently released bollywood movie on substance abuse prevalent in Punjab has been mired in controversy from the beginning. Earlier, when the movie had commenced its shooting,the production unit faced trouble for not taking mandatory permission from the district administration and police authorities of Amritsar. However, recently the movie drew attention due to its certification and censorship by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) which became the bone of contention between the producers and the CBFC. In…

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Disney Sues Venezuelan Company

  Disney has always been extremely protective of its intellectual property. The company has been aggressively pursuing infringers who have tried to use its IP assets without authorization. The number of suit against these infringers has increased in the recent times, with the expansion of its IP portfolio due to its acquisition of Marvel Entertainment. There have been several instances of infringement concerning Disney films, such as 'Frozen', 'Star Wars' and the Marvel movies, which it pursued aggressively. Last week, Disney…

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Technological Protection Measures

  The Copyright Act, 1957 went through a major change in 2012. The amendment harmonised the copyright law with the “Internet Treaties”- the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT), making it capable of facing challenges posed by digital technologies. The Copyright Act, 2012 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Act’) added new Sections, 65A and 65B, for protection against dodging of technological measures and protection of rights management information respectively. The provision under Section 65A sets out…

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Did China Copy Disney’s famous track?

  The lack of snow for the  2022 Winter Olympics, is not the only reason why China is facing criticism. The recent controversy faced by the Chinese is with respect to the Official Song for the games, “The Snow and Ice Dance” which has raised some questions about its source. It has been noticed by keen listeners that the song sounds like a rip-off of  “Let It Go,” the popular ballad sung by Idina Menzel . “Let it Go” rose to prominence, as…

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The image has the logo of microblogging website Twitter. The post is about a beverage company being sued by a photographer for allegedly using his copyrighted work for a social media ad campaign. The photographer is also suing others for copyright infringement who have re-tweeted or shared his photograph. Click on image to view the post.

Thou shall not re-tweet!

  Dennis Flaherty, an American photographer is suing the beverage manufacturer Big Red Inc. for using his copyrighted photograph of Fort Alamo at night, in a social media marketing campaign. Well, this doesn’t seem out place, right? Companies making unauthorized use of a copyrighted work should be held responsible, and in many cases they are. But what if I were to say that Mr. Flaherty is not just suing Big Red, its employees and affiliates but also every other person who…

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Can you sue if your tweet gets copied?

  Here is the next post in the series of Student Blog Contest.  The Internet is often considered the Wild West of laws; People believe that laws that exist offline do not apply online, or there exist different rules of behaviour. So when you tap out a tweet and hit send, putting it in public domain, can you sue if it gets copied? Short answer: No. Long answer? It’s complicated. Copyrighting a tweet is extremely hard, for various reasons. Reporting on…

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