Subject matter of copyright: the six classes of work

1. A closed list (section 13)

Section 13(1) says copyright subsists in (a) original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, (b) cinematograph films and (c) sound recordings. Section 16 adds that no copyright exists except under the Act. A thing that does not fit a class gets no copyright, however much skill went into it. This is the common law approach, shared with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. Berne Article 2(1) instead uses an open phrase, “every production in the literary, scientific and artistic domain”, and civil law systems follow it with an open list of examples.

Four further rules in section 13 matter in answers:

• Connecting factors (section 13(2)): first publication in India, or an Indian author, or for architecture, location in India. Foreign works are protected through the International Copyright Order under section 40.
• Tainted derivatives (section 13(3)): no copyright in a film if a substantial part of it infringes another work, or in a sound recording made in breach of copyright in the underlying work.
• Layers (section 13(4)): copyright in a film or sound recording does not affect the separate copyright in the works recorded in it.
• Architecture (section 13(5)): copyright protects only the artistic character and design, not processes or methods of construction.

2. Literary works

Section 2(o) says a literary work “includes computer programmes, tables and compilations including computer databases”. “Literary” means expressed in writing or print; it says nothing about quality. Peterson J. made this point in University of London Press v. University Tutorial Press (Chancery Division, 1916), holding that examination papers were literary works. Indian courts have protected railway timetables, directories, case reports and customer databases on the same basis.

• Compilations. Selection and arrangement can be protected even where the contents are public. In Eastern Book Company v. D.B. Modak, 2007 INSC 1266, the raw text of judgments was free, but the editorial additions (paragraph numbers, cross-references, headnotes) showed enough skill and judgment to be protected. The originality note discusses the test.
• Computer programmes are literary works, defined in section 2(ffc) as sets of instructions capable of making a computer perform a task. Section 14(b) gives them an extra rental right.
• Titles and slogans. These are usually too short to be works. Krishika Lulla v. Shyam Vithalrao Devkatta, 2015 INSC 781, held that a film title has no copyright. A title is protected, if at all, by passing off or trade mark law.
• Lectures (section 2(n): address, speech and sermon) are literary works. The person delivering them is also a performer.

3. Dramatic works

Section 2(h) defines a dramatic work to include “any piece for recitation, choreographic work or entertainment in dumb show, the scenic arrangement or acting form of which is fixed in writing or otherwise”, but not a cinematograph film. Two features stand out. First, fixation is required for this class, though the Act does not demand it for others. Second, the film is kept out, so a screenplay is a dramatic or literary work but the film made from it is a separate work.

• Dance and traditional forms. In Academy of General Education v. B. Malini Mallya, 2009 INSC 56, the Supreme Court dealt with Dr. Shivarama Karanth’s Yakshagana works, which he had left by will. The case turned on the difference between Karanth’s own fixed scripts and arrangements, which could be protected, and the traditional art form, which belongs to no one.
• Performance is not a work. Fortune Films v. Dev Anand (Bombay High Court, 1979) held that an actor’s performance in a film was not a dramatic work. The 1994 amendment answered the gap with a separate performer’s right (sections 38 to 38B), not by enlarging section 2(h).
• Formats and concepts. A television show format is hard to fit into section 2(h) because it is a set of ideas. Courts have protected developed concepts as confidential information instead, for example Anil Gupta v. Kunal Dasgupta (Delhi High Court, 2002).

4. Musical works

Section 2(p): a work consisting of music, including any graphical notation of it, but not any words or action intended to be sung, spoken or performed with the music. So a song has at least two works: the music (composer) and the lyrics (a literary work of the lyricist), plus, once it is recorded, a sound recording. Notation is included but not required, so a melody composed and sung without being written down is still a musical work. The ownership consequences for film music were settled in Indian Performing Right Society v. Eastern India Motion Pictures Association, 1977 INSC 87; the 2012 royalty provisos changed the economics, not the classification.

5. Artistic works

Section 2(c) lists (i) a painting, sculpture, drawing (including a diagram, map, chart or plan), engraving or photograph, “whether or not any such work possesses artistic quality”; (ii) a work of architecture; and (iii) any other work of artistic craftsmanship.

• No aesthetic test for class (i). An engineering drawing or a circuit plan is an artistic work.
• Architecture (section 2(b)): a building or structure having an artistic character or design, or a model for it. Under section 59, once construction of an infringing building has begun, the owner cannot get an injunction to stop it or an order to demolish it; damages remain.
• Artistic craftsmanship does require some artistic quality. George Hensher Ltd. v. Restawile Upholstery (House of Lords, 1976) refused protection to a mass-produced furniture prototype, though their Lordships differed on the test.
• Photographs (section 2(s)) exclude any part of a film, so a still frame is protected as part of the film, not as a photograph.
• The design boundary. Section 15 removes copyright from designs registered or registrable under the Designs Act once applied industrially. The Supreme Court’s test is in Cryogas Equipment v. Inox India, 2025 INSC 483; see the designs notes.

6. Cinematograph films

Section 2(f): “any work of visual recording”, including an accompanying sound recording, with “cinematograph” read to include any process analogous to cinematography, including video films. Since 2012 the definition turns on “visual recording” (section 2(xxa)), which covers digital storage, so a video clip on a phone is a film. The author is the producer (section 2(d)(v)), defined in section 2(uu) as the person who takes the initiative and responsibility for making the work. The term is sixty years from publication (section 26).

A film is a derivative work: the script, music and lyrics remain separate works under section 13(4). The difficult question is the scope of the film right. Star India v. Leo Burnett (Bombay High Court, 2003) held that it is infringed only by an actual copy of the film, not by re-shooting similar scenes. MRF Ltd. v. Metro Tyres Ltd. (Delhi High Court, 2019) disagreed, holding that a film that substantially reproduces another film can infringe even if no footage is copied. The conflict is unresolved at Supreme Court level.

7. Sound recordings

Section 2(xx): a recording of sounds from which the sounds may be produced, regardless of medium or method. The producer is author. Like films, sound recordings need no originality under section 13(1); they are protected because someone paid to make them. A fresh recording of the same song by different musicians is a new sound recording. Super Cassette Industries v. Bathla Cassette Industries (Delhi High Court, 2003) dealt with such “version recordings”, now governed by the statutory licence for cover versions in section 31C.

8. What falls outside

• Ideas, facts, news, systems and methods (the idea–expression rule in R.G. Anand v. Delux Films, 1978 INSC 138).
• Titles, names, short phrases and slogans.
• Live performances and broadcasts as such, which carry special rights under Chapter VIII.
• Industrial designs once section 15 applies.
• Unfixed improvisation in classes where fixation is required.

How this is examined

For “subject matter of copyright”, begin with section 13 as a closed list and the split between authorial and entrepreneurial works, take each class with its definition and one case at its edge, and end with what is excluded. A short note on a single class (“dramatic work”, “cinematograph film”) should give the definition word for word, the author, the term and the leading case.