The Copyright Act, 1957/Chapter 15

by the Parliament of India

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CHAPTER XV

Miscellaneous

74. The Registrar of Copyrights and the Copyright Board shall Registrar of Copyrights and Copyright Board to possess certain powers of civil courts.have the powers of a civil court when trying a suit under the Code of 5 of 1908.Civil Procedure, 1908, in respect of the following matters, namely:-

(a) summoning, and enforcing the attendance of any person and examining him on oath;

(b) requiring the discovery and production of any document;

(c) receiving evidence on affidavits;

(d) issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses or documents;

(e) requisitioning any public record or copy thereof from any court or office;

(f) any other matter which may be prescribed.

Explanation.-For the purpose of enforcing the attendance of witnesses, the local limits of the jurisdiction of the Registrar of Copyrights or the Copyright Board, as the case may be, shall be the limits of the territory of India.

75. Every order made by the Registrar of Copyrights or the Orders for payment of money passed by Registrar of Copyrights and Copyright Board to be executable as a decree.Copyright Board under this Act for the payment of any money or by the High Court in any appeal against any such order of the Copyright Board shall, on a certificate issued by the Registrar of Copyrights, the Copyright Board or the Registrar of the High court as the case may be, be deemed to be a decree of a civil court and shall be, executable in the same manner as a decree of such court.

76. No suit or other legal proceeding shall lie against any person Protection of action taken in good faith.in respect of anything which is in good faith done or intended to be done in pursuance of this Act.

77. Certain persons to be public servants.Every officer appointed under this Act and every member of the Copyright Board shall be deemed to be a public servant within the meaning of section 21 of the Indian Penal Code.45 of 1860.

78. (1) Power to make rules.The Central Government may, by notification in the make rules Official Gazette, make rules^[1] for carrying out the purposes of this Act.

(2) In particular, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, the Central Government may make rules to provide for all or any of the following matters, namely:—

(a) the term of office and conditions of service of the Chairman and other members of the Copyright Board;

(b) the form of complaints and applications to be made, and the licences to be granted, under this Act;

(c) the procedure to be followed in connection with any proceeding before the Registrar of Copyrights;

(d) the manner of determining any royalties payable under this Act, and the security to be taken for the payment of such royalties;

(e) the form of Register of Copyrights to: be kept under this Act and the particulars to be entered therein;

(f) the matters in respect of which the Registrar of Copyrights and the Copyright Board shall have powers of a civil court;

(g) the fees which may be payable under this Act;

(h) the regulation of business of the Copyright Office and of all things by this Act placed under the direction or control of the Registrar of Copyrights.

(3) All rules made under this section shall, as soon as may be after they are made, be laid before both Houses of Parliament for not less than thirty days and shall be subject to such modifications as Parliament may make during the session in which they are so laid or the session immediately following.

79. (1) Repeals, savings and transitional provisions.The Indian Copyright Act, 1914, and the Copyright Act 3 of 1914.of 1911 passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom as modified in its application to India by the Indian Copyright Act, 1914, are 3 of 1914.hereby repealed.

(2) Where any person has, before the commencement of this Act, taken any action whereby he has incurred any expenditure or liabilities in connection with the reproduction or performance of any work in a manner which at the time was lawful or for the purpose of or with a view to the reproduction or performance of a work at a time when such reproduction or performance would, but for the coming into force of this Act, have been lawful, nothing in this section shall diminish or prejudice any rights or interests arising from or in connection with such action which are subsisting and valuable at the said date, unless the person who, by virtue of this Act, becomes entitled to restrain such reproduction or performance agrees to pay such compensation as, failing agreement, may be determined by the Copyright Board.

(3) Copyright shall not subsist by virtue of this Act in any work in which copyright did not subsist immediately before the commencement of this Act under any Act repealed by sub-section (1).

(4) Where copyright, subsisted in any work immediately before the commencement of this Act, the rights comprising such copyright shall, as from the date of such commencement, be the rights specified in section 14 in relation to the class of works to which such work belongs, and where any new rights are conferred by that section, the owner of such rights shall be—

(a) in any ease where copyright in the work was wholly assigned before the commencement of this Act, the assignee or his successor-in-interest;

(b) in any other case, the person who was the first owner of the copyright in, the work under any Act repealed by sub-section (1) or his legal representatives.

(5) Except as otherwise provided in this Act, where any person is entitled, immediately before the commencement of this Act to copyright in any work or any right in such copyright or to an interest in any such right, he shall continue to be entitled to such right or interest for the period for which he would have been entitled thereto if this Act had not come into force.

(6) Nothing contained in this Act shall be deemed to render any act done before its commencement an infringement of copyright if that act would not otherwise have constituted such an infringement;

(7) Save as otherwise provided in this section, nothing in this section shall be deemed to affect the application of the General 10 of 1897.Clauses Act, 1897, with respect to the effect of repeals.

1. For the Copyright Rules, 1958, see Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, page 167.