Author, ownership, term of copyright, rights conferred and moral rights

1. Who is the author: section 2(d)

• literary or dramatic work: the author of the work;
• musical work: the composer;
• artistic work other than a photograph: the artist;
• photograph: the person taking the photograph;
• cinematograph film or sound recording: the producer, that is, the person who takes the initiative and responsibility for making the work (section 2(uu));
• any literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work which is computer-generated: the person who causes the work to be created.

A work of joint authorship (section 2(z)) is one produced by the collaboration of two or more authors in which the contribution of one is not distinct from that of the others.

2. First owner: section 17

The rule is that the author is the first owner. The exceptions, each subject to an agreement to the contrary, are:

• (a) Journalists. A literary, dramatic or artistic work made under a contract of service for a newspaper, magazine or periodical: the proprietor owns the right to publish it in a periodical; the author owns everything else.
• (b) Commissioned works. A photograph, painting, portrait, engraving or film made for valuable consideration at the instance of another: that person is first owner.
• (c) Employees. A work made in the course of employment under a contract of service or apprenticeship: the employer. A contract for services (an independent contractor) is not enough.
• (cc) Speeches. The person delivering an address in public, or the person on whose behalf it is delivered.
• (d) Government works: the Government; (dd) works of a public undertaking: the undertaking; (e) works of international organisations under section 41: the organisation.

The proviso added in 2012 says that for any work incorporated in a cinematograph film, clauses (b) and (c) do not affect the author’s right in the underlying literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work. This was Parliament’s answer to IPRS v. Eastern India Motion Pictures Association, 1977 INSC 87, (1977) 2 SCC 820, where the film producer had been held owner of the music and lyrics commissioned for the film.

3. Term of copyright: sections 22 to 29

• Literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works published in the author’s lifetime: life plus sixty years, counted from the beginning of the calendar year after the author’s death; for joint works, the author who dies last (section 22). Since 2012 this includes photographs; section 25, which gave photographs a shorter term, was omitted.
• Anonymous and pseudonymous works: sixty years from first publication, or life plus sixty if the identity is disclosed in that time (section 23).
• Posthumous works: sixty years from first publication (section 24).
• Cinematograph films and sound recordings: sixty years from publication (sections 26 and 27).
• Government works, works of public undertakings and of international organisations: sixty years from first publication (sections 28, 28A and 29).

The term always runs from the beginning of the following calendar year, so all works of an author who died in 1965 entered the public domain on 1 January 2026.

4. Rights conferred: section 14

For a literary, dramatic or musical work (other than a computer programme), the exclusive right to do or authorise:

• reproducing the work in any material form, including storing it electronically;
• issuing copies to the public not already in circulation;
• performing it in public or communicating it to the public;
• making a cinematograph film or sound recording of it;
• making a translation or an adaptation of it, and doing any of the above in relation to the translation or adaptation.

For a computer programme, all the above plus selling or giving it on commercial rental. For an artistic work, reproduction (including depiction in three dimensions of a two-dimensional work and vice versa), communication to the public, issuing copies, including it in a film, and adaptation. For a film, making a copy (including a photograph of any image forming part of it), selling or hiring it, and communicating it to the public. For a sound recording, making another recording embodying it, selling or hiring it, and communicating it to the public.

Section 53A adds a resale share right for authors of original paintings, sculptures, drawings and manuscripts where the work is resold for more than ten thousand rupees.

5. Moral rights: section 57

Independently of copyright, and even after assigning it wholly or partly, the author has the right:

• of paternity: to claim authorship of the work; and
• of integrity: to restrain, or claim damages for, any distortion, mutilation, modification or other act in relation to the work which would be prejudicial to his honour or reputation.

Failure to display a work, or to display it to the author’s satisfaction, is not a violation. The right does not cover adaptations of a computer programme permitted by section 52(1)(aa). The legal representatives of the author may exercise it (section 57(2)). The 2012 amendment removed the old limitation that the integrity right could not be enforced after the term of copyright, so it is not limited to the term.

The leading illustration is Amar Nath Sehgal v. Union of India (Delhi High Court, 2005). The sculptor had made a large bronze mural for Vigyan Bhawan. The Government took it down and stored it in a damaged condition. The court held that destruction and mutilation of the work violated his right of integrity, awarded damages, and directed that the remnants be returned to him. The case treats moral rights as part of the author’s personality, which is why they cannot be assigned away.

6. Related rights: broadcasters and performers

• Broadcast reproduction right (section 37): the broadcasting organisation has a special right in its broadcasts for twenty-five years from the beginning of the year after the broadcast.
• Performer’s right (sections 38 and 38A): a performer (actor, singer, musician, dancer, acrobat and others) has the exclusive right to make a recording of the performance, broadcast it and communicate it, for fifty years from the beginning of the year after the performance. Once a performer consents to the performance being incorporated in a film, he cannot object to its use in the film, though he keeps a right to royalties for commercial use.
• Moral rights of performers (section 38B): to be identified as the performer and to restrain distortion prejudicial to reputation.

How this is examined

June 2025 asked: “Define Author and explain moral rights of author” (10 marks). Write section 2(d) clause by clause, a paragraph distinguishing author from owner with section 17, then section 57 with Amar Nath Sehgal, and end with performers’ moral rights. The term of copyright is a frequent short note; give the table of terms in sentence form as in section 3 above. “Rights conferred by copyright” is answered from section 4.