Copyright

Copyright is a legal concept enacted by most national governments, that gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited period of time. At its most general, it is literally “the right to copy”, but also gives the copyright holder the right to be credited for the work, to determine who (if anyone) can perform it or adapt it to other forms, to benefit financially from the work, and other related rights. It is one form of intellectual property (distinct from patents, trademarks, and trade secrets), and applies to any particular expression of an idea or information, which is substantial and self-contained in a fixed form. The symbol for copyright is “©”. (The letter C inside parentheses – “(c)” – although a common practice has never been legally recognized as a symbol for copyright.)

Scope

Copyright may apply to a wide range of creative, intellectual, or artistic forms or “works”. These include poems, theses, plays, and other literary works, movies, choreographic works (dances, ballets, etc.), musical compositions, audio recordings, paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, software, radio and television broadcasts of live and other performances, and, in some jurisdictions, industrial designs. Graphic designs or industrial designs may have separate or overlapping laws applied to them in some jurisdictions. Copyright is one of the concepts covered by the umbrella term intellectual property. Copyright does not cover ideas or information themselves, only the form or manner in which they are expressed. For example, the copyright to a Mickey Mouse cartoon restricts others from making copies of the cartoon or creating derivative works based on Disney’s particular anthropomorphic mouse, but doesn’t prohibit the creation of other works about anthropomorphic mice in general, so long as they are different enough to not be judged copies of Disney’s. In many jurisdictions, copyright law makes exceptions to these restrictions for the purpose of commentary and other related uses (See Fair Use, Fair Dealing). Other laws may impose legal restrictions which copyright does not – such as trademarks and patents. Copyright laws are standardized somewhat through international conventions such as the Berne Convention which have been ratified by most countries, and are required by international organizations such as European Union or World Trade Organization from their member states.

The legislative acts which originally established copyright law as it is known today cited two fundamental justifications for it: 1) To benefit society by promoting the creation of new works, and 2) to protect the moral rights of the creators of these works.
What works are copyrightable in Pakistan?

Copyrightable works include the following categories:

1. literary works
2. musical works, including any accompanying words
3. dramatic works, including any accompanying music
4. pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works
5. motion pictures and other audiovisual works
6. sound recordings
7. architectural works

Whether registration of copyrights in Pakistan is a compulsory requirement for protection of copyrightable works?

Registration of a copyright is Pakistan is not a compulsory requirement for protection of such copyrightable works in Pakistan. Copyright is secured automatically when the work is created, and a work is “created” when it is fixed in a copy or phonorecord for the first time. There are, however, certain definite advantages to registration. Registration, however, establishes prima facie evidence in a Court of Law of the validity of the copyrights and of the facts stated in the certificate.

Copyright Protection in Pakistan

In Pakistan, copyright protection is governed by the provisions of the Copyright Ordinance, 1962 (“the Ordinance”) which is modeled on the English Act of 1914. Pakistan is a member of Berne Copyright Union and the Universal Copyright Convention. One of the most significant developments in relation to the protection of copyright in Pakistan is the recent promulgation of the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 1992 (“the Amendment Act”). Copyright protection originally available to literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, cinematographic and architectural works, books, photographs, newspapers, engravings, lectures, records (defined as “any disc, tape, wire, perforated roll or other device in which sounds are embodied so as to be capable of being reproduced therefore, other than a sound track associated with a cinematographic work”) and sculptures is now extended to computer software, periodicals, video films and all kind of audio-visual works. The Ordinance now provides stiffer penalties for offenders and better compensation to the persons whose rights have been infringed. The manner in which the copyright is breached has also been extended. Entirely new offences have been created through the Amendment Act which, inter alia, include penalties for publishing collections or compendiums of work (the Ordinance defines “work” to include literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, cinematographic works and a record) which have been adapted, translated or modified in any manner without the authority of the owner of the copyright. Section 37 of the Ordinance has been amended to restrict granting of licenses to produce and publish translation of a literary or dramatic work in English, French or Spanish, hence an applicant requesting the grant of license, upon granting of the license and payment of prescribed royalty to the author, can produce and publish translation of a literary or dramatic work in any Pakistani language or any language not being English, French or Spanish.

Foreign Authors

The Ordinance has distinct provisions for Pakistani and foreign works. Section 6(1) provides that a work published in Pakistan shall be deemed to be first published in Pakistan, notwithstanding that it has been published simultaneously in some other country, unless such other country provides a shorter term of copyright for such work; and a work is deemed to be published simultaneously in Pakistan and in another country if the time between the publication in Pakistan and the publication in such country does not exceed thirty days. Section 8 entitles a body corporate to be considered domiciled in Pakistan if it is incorporated under any law in force in Pakistan or it has an established place of business in Pakistan. Although the Ordinance has provisions for granting compulsory licenses, nevertheless, such a license can only be acquired for Pakistani work and no compulsory license can be granted for any work whose author in not a citizen of Pakistan or whose `record’ is not manufactured in Pakistan.

Duration of Copyright

The period of copyright of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work (other than a photograph) is the life of the author and 50 years thereafter. In the case of a cinematographic work and a photograph, copyright subsists until 50 years from the beginning of the calendar year from publication of the work.

Infringement of Copyright

The act of copying of work, which is entitled to copyright protection, by any method, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device constitutes an infringement of the copyright in the work. Section 56 of the Ordinance provides that copyright in a work shall be deemed to be infringed in the following cases:-

(a)when any person without the consent of the owner of the copyright or without a license granted by such owner or the Registrar under the Ordinance or in contravention of the conditions of a license so granted or of any condition imposed by a competent authority under the Ordinance:-

i. does anything the exclusive right to do which is by this Ordinance conferred upon the owner of the copyright; or
ii. permits for profit any place to be used for the performance of the work in public where such performance constitutes an infringement of the copyright in the work unless he was not aware and had no reasonable ground for suspecting, that such performance would be an infringement of the copyright, or (b)When any person:-
iii. makes for sale or hire or sells or lets for hire, or by way of trade displays or offers for sale or hire, or
iv. Distributes either for the purpose of trade to such as extent as to affect prejudicially the owner of the copyright, or
v. by way of trade exhibits in public, or
vi. Imports into Pakistan, any infringing copies of the work.

Regards,
Muhammad Owais