Note on Code Swaraj
The case went to the High Court of Delhi in New Delhi. My friend Shamnad Basheer, one of the leading intellectual property scholars in India and a dedicated public worker, intervened on behalf of a society of students and academics.
The Copyright Act of India, like any copyright act, contains certain exceptions to copyright, areas where copyright simply does not apply. In the U.S., for example, works of the U.S. government are exempt from copyright. In both India and the U.S., one can copy a book to make it available to the blind without violating copyright, no matter what the status of the book, the result of an international treaty.
In India, another exception to copyright is when a work is copied in the course of a teacher instructing a student. Copyright does not apply when this occurs. The court said the course packs at Delhi University fell squarely within this exception to copyright. There was no copyright violation by the Rameshwari Photocopy Shop because the course packs had been made for that specific purpose, with the authorization of the university, in furtherance of the promotion of the diffusion of knowledge, the very purpose of copyright.
Copyright law did not apply. Case dismissed.
I’ve been mulling over the Delhi University case, and the decision of the court resonated deeply with me. What if I showed up on campus with my database of journal articles? I had in mind the equivalent of a taco truck that are ubiquitous here in the United States.
My idea is that a professor can furnish me a list of Digital Object Identifiers for journal articles. Then, when students come up to the window, I’d hand them a USB thumb drive with their course pack on it. Then I’d drive to the next university and do the same thing. One-on-one service of knowledge. Maybe we could serve snacks along with free USB drives. I have a wonderful collection of guacamole recipes that would be a huge hit in India.
“Isn’t this directly on point?” I asked Shamnad. He agreed it seems to be exactly the same as the physical course packs, but of course one cannot ever tell how a court would interpret the specific facts and whether they would see the parallel between a USB drive and a paper course pack. But, we both agreed it was certainly on point.
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