User:Mahitgar/Copyright matters about government work in India

Government work created India gets copyright protection in India for 60 Years. As per Sec. 2(k) of the Copyright Act "government work" means a work which is made or published by or under the direction or control of- (i) the government or any department of the government;(ii) any Legislature in India; (iii) any court, Tribunal or other judicial authority in India. Subsection d and dd of Section 17 of Indian Copyright Act 1957 state that, Government or a public (Government) undertaking is supposed to be the first owner of a Governments work.

Copyright Period
As per Section 28 of the Copyright Act, copyright for Government works subsisted for 50 years for works published before 1941. For works published in or after 1941, copyright is for 60 years after publication, consequent upon the 1992 amendment. Copyright is calculated as per the calendar year. That means, a work published on any date in 1950 stayed copyrighted upto 2010, and went into the public domain from the 1st January, 2011.

Fair dealing provisions against Government work
Section 52 (1) provides for fairdealing of the government work as under.
 * (q) the reproduction or publication of-


 * (i) any matter which has been published in any Official Gazette except an Act of a Legislature;


 * (ii) any Act of a Legislature subject to the condition that such Act is reproduced or published together with any commentary thereon or any other original matter;


 * (iii) the report of any committee, commission, council, board or other like body appointed by the government if such report has been laid on the Table of the Legislature, unless the reproduction or publication of such report is prohibited by the government;


 * (iv) any judgement or order of a court, Tribunal or other judicial authority, unless the reproduction or publication of such judgement or order is prohibited by the court, the Tribunal or other judicial authority, as the case may be;


 * (r) the production or publication of a translation in any Indian language of an Act of a Legislature and of any rules or orders made thereunder-


 * (i) if no translation of such Act or rules or orders in that language has previously been produced or published by the government; or


 * (ii) where a translation of such Act or rules or orders in that language has been produced or published by the government, if the translation is not available for sale to the public:


 * PROVIDED that such translation contains a statement at a prominent place to the effect that the translation has not been authorised or accepted as authentic by the government.

Items covered in Section 52(1)(q)(iv), i.e., judgements of courts, have been interpreted to be in the public domain by Supreme Court judgement of 2007 in [http://judis.nic.in/supremecourt/imgs1.aspx?filename=30019 Eastern Book Company & Ors. vs. D.B. Modak & Anr.]