New Delhi Challenges the Berne Convention
New Delhi Challenges the Berne Convention
One of the lesser known details of Indian copyright history is that the first copyright legislation introduced after Independence in 1955—the Copyright Bill, 1955—was actually in violation of India’s obligations under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. A determined lobbying effort led by the famous poet Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar’ and his contemporaries forced the Government of India to roll back these contentious provisions. The next decade saw India lead a developing country effort to reform the Berne Convention in order to make books more accessible to the people of the developing world. Although, the Indian effort to reform Berne Convention led to mixed results, the very same issues have come to the fore in the now famous University of Delhi photocopy case. This chapter explores the politics, economics, history, and law on the issue of copyright law and access to knowledge.
Keywords: Berne Convention, University of Delhi (DU), Copyright Act, 1957, fair dealing, photocopy, Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar’, Minoo Masani, Chagla, book publishing, course-pack
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