Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Good verdict by Delhi High Court' that was published in Newsband

Good verdict by Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court verdict says that photocopying portions of academic publications to make course packs for students does not amount to copyright infringement. The publishers have argued, in vain, that universities should not allow unrestricted photocopying, but instead apply for licences through the Indian Reprographic Rights Organisation, a registered copyright society. The publishers may pursue this aspect in their appeal, if there is one.

First let us decide whether the education is, a business or concern and is it accessible to desirous; if it is business then it should be as much accessible as now a day’s phones are. In later case obviously the purpose is same as that of education itself. It is not about copying but delivering to the mass without any constraint i.e. cost, laws and availability etc.

Everyone has right to education. If he cannot afford to buy a book then he may take a photocopy. If some books are affordable and cheap then people try to buy a new book rather than its photocopy. In colleges, Professors prefer to read books of foreigner authors and those books are costly mostly published by Oxford and Cambridge Publication. So students have no other alternative. Delhi High Court gave a great judgement. If this is issue of copy right then many books are available on internet that are accessed in the form of pdf. In early future most books will be available online and anybody can access them. If a person has a photocopy of any book then book was brought by someone.

In addition, most academic authors are now being required to offer their work in open access forums. There will come a day in the future when professors will contribute around the world to a repository on the Internet from which other professors can freely pick and choose to tailor their course materials perfectly with cutting edge research at an affordable price for students.

In order to safeguard the interest of the author whose arduous effort has resulted in the publication of a scholarly academic work the University/educational institution concerned should, if it intends to photocopy the entire work or a portion thereof for distribution among students, pay a one-time royalty to the publisher/author. The law should be appropriately amended.

The problem is that in the third world currency being comparatively weak, the student community cannot afford to buy books priced in dollars and pounds. They are happy that there is an easy provision in the law of the land which make them circumvent the copyright hurdle.

Court's directive is welcome step in the direction of access of knowledge and information for students without considering the commercial aspect of the publishers. This positive outlook is important for educational institutions as well as students to receive qualitative education without financial constraints. Foreign publications are normally high and some students may not be able to afford to purchase texts. They resort to gain access to the texts by other means. They stand benefited.