When was the last time you used a copyrighted work without permission? How many times have you had second thoughts about the legal usage of copyrighted work? Fair use is a legal doctrine that allows the limited use of copyrighted material without permission from the owner. BLOCK X- India’s No.1 anti-piracy company will help you decode fair use of content through some instances.

The concept of “fair use doctrine” arose as courts aimed to find a balance between safeguarding the rights of copyright holders and accommodating the public’s need to use copyrighted material in limited situations. Under this, not all copying is considered illegal. Whenever it serves for a socially significant purpose or is used for “transformative use” , such as in the pursuit of criticism, news reporting, education, and research or creating a parody, it falls under fair use of content.

Under Indian law, the Copyright Act of 1957, following falls under fair use of content:

(i) “private or personal use,” including research;

(ii) criticism or review of the work; 

(iii) reporting on current events and affairs, including reporting on a lecture given in public.

Only a copyright owner has the right to produce the particular work in public, publish or perform the work in public, translate or broadcast the work, make an adaptation or make a cinematograph film out of the work and make copies and distribute. So if anyone else tries to do the same, then it falls under copyright violation.

Examples of Unfair Use of Content That You Wouldn’t Have Thought is a Violation:

• Downloading movies from an unauthorised source
• Using a television serial clip in a youtube video without giving credit and publishes the serial clip on youtube
• Using a song’s music as background music in his/her song

What Comes Under Fair Use of Content in India?

• Using a work for purposes like personal or private use, including research, review or criticism of the work or reporting of current affairs and events, including the lecture delivered in public
• Copies of computer programs can be made to utilize the program for its intended purpose or to create backup copies as a temporary safeguard against destruction, loss, or damage
• Storage purposes of a performance or work
• Reproduction of work in a judicial proceeding
• Reproduction or publication of a work prepared by the Secretariat of a Legislature for the exclusive use of the Legislature members
• Reproduction of work in a certified copy supplied or made as per law
•  Reciting or publicly reading reasonable excerpts from a published dramatic or literary work
• Including short passages from published dramatic or literary works in a collection of non-copyright material intended for instructional use.
•  Copying a work by a teacher during instruction, as part of examination questions, or as answers to those questions.

• Presenting a dramatic, literary, or musical work within an educational institution by students and staff, or playing a sound recording or cinematograph film with an audience restricted to staff and students.
• Playing a recording for public listening in residential premises within an enclosed hall or room designated for the shared use of residents, or as part of activities organized by a club or organization not operated for profit.
• A non-professional society or club performing a dramatic, literary, or musical work for the benefit of a religious institution or a non-paying audience.
• Reprinting an article on current political, economic, religious, or social topics in a magazine, newspaper, or other periodicals, unless the author has explicitly reserved the reproduction rights.
• Copying a work for personal study or research purposes, or publishing an unpublished dramatic, literary, or musical work held in a museum, library, or other publicly accessible institutions.
• Publishing or making a drawing, engraving, painting, display or photograph of a work of architecture
• Incorporating an artistic work permanently located in a public place or premises accessible to the public into a cinematograph film, provided such inclusion serves as incidental or background to the main subjects depicted in the film.
• Making a three-dimensional object from a two-dimensional artistic work for industrial application
• Reconstruction of a structure or building as per the architectural plans or drawings

Copyright owners can initiate civil cases in courts with jurisdiction, seeking remedies such as damages, injunctions, and accounts. Additionally, criminal suits can be filed in courts of First Class Judicial Magistrates or Metropolitan Magistrates. If copyright infringement involves an individual, or a legal entity like a company or Limited Liability Partnership (LLP), both the entity and individuals in charge during the offense or responsible for business conduct may be held liable.

We at BLOCK X, take care of end-to-end protection of your content from being copyright with immediate takedowns. As Google’s trusted partner, our advanced tools and premium access will safeguard your content at all online spaces.