TAMIL NADU NATIONAL LAW SCHOOL TIRUCHIRAPPALLI

(A State University Established By Act No.9 of 2012)

NavalurKuttapattu, Srirangam (TK), Tiruchirappalli - 620 009 Tamil
Nadu

Research Project on
"ADVANCED COURSE ON COPYRIGHT"
Project Topic
ENFORCEMENT OF COPYRIGHT IN THEATRE INDUSTRY
Submitted to
Prof. Ms.Preetham balakrishnan
Associate Professor of Law
Faculty In charge of International Organizations
Submitted by

A.K.S.VISHNU

BA0140077 - A Section
DECLARATION
I do hereby declare that the non-doctrinal research entitled” ENFORCEMENT
OF COPYRIGHT IN THEATRE INDUSTRY

” submitted to ‘the TAMILNADU NATIONAL LAW SCHOOL’,in partial

fullfillment of internal assesment of fifth semester is a record of original work done
by me under the supervision and guidance of Prof. Ms.Preetham balakrishnan,in
charge of research guidance the Tamilnadu National Law School, Trichy and that
has not formed the basis for the award of any degree or diploma or other title to
any university.

PLACE:TRICHY
A.K.S.VISHNU

DATE:1/11/18
REG.NO.BA0140077
ENFORCEMENT OF RIGHT IN THEATRE INDUSTRY:

ABSTRACT:

This title is in cinematographic works. The main objective here is to clarify, at least to some
extent, the complex copyright laws that affect the theater industry. These laws are the ones that
differentiate theater: the meaning of theater has changed in this century, from theater to theater
and the most complex way of showing the film. When we talk about copyright in the cinema,
there are four different groups. Original movie producers, who are the sole owners of rights, can
sell film rights, video rights, cable rights, commercial rights and satellite rights. In the eyes of the
law, film copyright has five elements, each of which is divided into three different parts. Those
are:

1.Film rights.
2. Theater rights.
3. Non-theatrical rights.

The need for theater directors, producers, art directors, and art directors, as well as knowledge of
copyright laws, can prevent piracy, which can lead to serious legal problems that can lead to
inconvenience or even considerable fines. . This empirical study would get information from
different theaters

KEY WORDS: THEATRE, COPYRIGHT, CINEMATOGRAPHIC WORKS,PIRACY

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

1. Whether in India the copyright violations with respect to cinematographic works relate mainly
to cable, video and commercial rights?

2. What is the extent of piracy in theatre industry?

3. Whether there are regulations regarding censorship in India to prevent this copyright
violation?
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE:

To know whether the theatre owner is aware of copyright laws and piracy.? Also to ensure that
the viewers also have duty towards non violation of copright in theatre. How to stop existing
piracy in Tamilnadu?

PROGRESS AND PERVERSITY OF COPYRIGHT:

The idea of copyright has emerged as a means of balancing an incentive to printers to bring
public domain literature and maintain contacts, check the content of this literature. Before 1709,
the idea of a "copyright" was only that, the right to copy. However, Anna's status of 1709
marked several changes in the attitude of the law with regard to the production of
intellectuals. Goods, which differentiate it from other types of goods. Now, apply the right to
print in a particular job, instead of all the printing exercise.But the monopoly granted to the
printer to print a particular book was not a law perpetual but limited to fourteen years. The law
entitled "An Law for the Promotion of Learning, Granting Copies of Forms the books of authors
or buyers of such copies have recognized the role of Public domain information accessible to all
other users create more works even in copyright period the law it did not try to limit the
availability of the book in public libraries in order not to do so commercial distribution Thus,
even in its initial moment, the legal vision - protection of intellectual property has shown
ambivalence between the need of free access to information and to encourage the establishment
of insertion of information and knowledge in the public domain. It was because Intellectual
property is distinguished from other forms of ownership by two essential aspects. forms.

First, intellectual property or information is what economists call "public goods" that are not
rivals and are not exclusive in their consumption that is, the consumption of the good by a
person does not prevent another person to use it. Second, all creative products include two types
of costs: the "cost of expression" or the cost of producing the first copy of the work, being a
fixed cost; and the "cost of reproduction", that is, the cost of produce several copies of the
product from its first copy .In the era of mechanical reproduction of art, it is combined.The
participation of the two costs involved prevents the author or the artist working for the public
domain through mass production, which was possible in the manuscript and in oral cultures. In
the era of mechanical reproduction it is a large influx of capital. In addition, the cost of
production of the second and subsequent copies are substantially inferior to those of the first
mechanical copy A combination of these two factors meant that all in one had to rely on the
printer to bring the work to the public domain, the the printer, in turn, needed substantial
protection for benefits against his investment, which is equivalent to limiting access to work of
limit the copyright period to fourteen years and allow circulation to the public libraries, the law
of 1709, enshrined this ambivalence in the basic principles in intellectual property legislation.
 Interestingly, although the Copyright Act restricts the possession of the right to reproduces a
work, differs from the "moral right" of the author of a document the work "moral law" was the
addition of French writers like Victor Hugo to the concept of Anglo-Saxon copyright, which was
economic rights by agreeing to give the publisher permission to print on written by , the author
renounces the copyright of the work, but the fact it does not transfer the "moral right" to be
called the author of the work and to be protected against damage to your reputation as inadequate
use of the work. However, for the moment, the "moral rights" of the authors they are limited by
additional legal measures. The law does not recognize the "moral rights" of artists involved in
the creation of "works under contract", for example Pro grammarians working in a software
company or copywriter who are preparing a jingle in advertising Agency the protection of
improper use of the material of an artist is often subject to huge legal fees and rarely a single
artist can fight against corporate house. The "moral right" is also limited to the lifetime of the
artist.
Copyright laws have grown in scope and severity over the centuries.Today, they cover almost all
forms of creative expression: from the mechanical point of view- reproducible arts such as books
and films, visual arts such as painting and sculpture, including intangible forms such as theater
and choreography from fourteen years in the law of 1709, the protection of copyright has been
extended to Fifty years after the death of the author as part of the intellectual framework related
to TRIPS. What was initially a copy now it has extended to the right to control the use.
Kenneth Branagh could have made his films the grant of copyright protection was first in the
hands of local councils,they often vary substantially under different conditions in a monarchy.
National copyright laws were adopted in the eighteenth century in the 19th century, several
nation states concluded a bilateral agreement the right to grant copyright protection to works
produced in the territory of each was during the establishment of the Berne Convention in 1886
that the first move was made to develop an international copyright standard. It has been revised
over the years to the Universal Copyright Convention(UCC) was adopted in Geneva in 1952. But
the UCC was not acceptable for many countries outside the French and British empires: the
Soviet Union joined alone in 1973 and in the United States until 1980.The copyright regime has
been subjected to the most consistent letter of history TRIPS in 1995, followed by the creation of
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 19201

1
Ghosh, A. (2013). Censorship through Copyright: From print to digital media. Social Scientist, 41(1/2), 55-56.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23611080
RIGHTS OF AUDIENCE:

From the design of a play, the audience play an important role in the dictatorship of its content.
After all, the public is the theater consumer and the playwright the producer. Therefore, it makes
sense that some of the same rules governing the supply / demand of any other product still apply.
The role of the public as a consumer is the drama writer's main focus as he develops the plot,
characters, and dialogue.

The public favors all aspects of the development of theatrical performance. Initially, the public
assumes the function of directing the content of the work or the performance itself. The public
also plays the role of promoting other decisions. For example, producers will consider their
audience during the casting. They think that if the actor suits the play and if some actresses or
actors attract an audience towards the show.Once the audience is seated, their role as a consumer
is complete. Let's think for a moment: what will happen if an actor is on stage and utters a
sentence that pretends to be funny, but that the audience does not laugh? Public reaction sends
messages to actors about how their performance is received. Silence during the humorous section
tells the actors that, for many possible reasons, the audience does not see or disagree with the
described humor. Actors, in turn, use this information to adjust their current performance and
perhaps future performance. Directors and writers also guide their decisions in their future
actions based on public reaction.2

EXTENSION OF THE VIOLATION AND ECONOMIC LOSS:

BRIEF ON THE FILM INDUSTRY

India produces the greatest number of features in the world. During the years 1931 to 1996, India
has produced 27809 feature films in several languages. The participation of Hindi Films was
around 29%, while Tamil and Telugu films were 18% and 17% respectively. These three
languages they represented almost two-third of the total films produced up.Now about a quarter
(25%) of the movies.These products were in Bengali, Canada and Malayalam. In 1996, a total of
683 films were produced, 126(18%) in Hindi, 154 (22.5 cents) in Tamil, 138 (20.2%) in Telugu,
85 (12.4)percentage) were in Kannada and 65 (9.5%) were in Malayalam.The total turnover of
the film industry in 1996 was about 2,500 crore rupees. This turnover has been solved only
movies shown in cinemas. According to official statistics, there are 12623 cinema theatre
scattered across the country with an audience of 9 to 10 million people a week. Taking the about
9 million people a week, the number of people who visit cinemas works every year it will be 468
million rupees. Even if we take a conservative estimate of only Rs. 5 per seat on average it works

2
https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-role-of-the-audience-in-theatre.html
to be on the crest Rs.2340, that is to say crore Rs.2500. Entertainment costs of 30%, would yield
on Rs 750 million rupees as tax revenue for the authorities.

COMMERCIAL RIGHTS:

In addition to theatrical rental, cable, video and video, the rights holders in the film industry.Jobs
(mainly movie producers) can also sell videos to show movies in commercial places such as
Hotels, boats, video rooms, etc. Our estimate of the violation of the commercial rights of
the films will be limited to the hotel sector. Our survey of the hotel industry revealed that most
Hotels, including some 5-star hotels, are now only connected by cable operators. So they receive
programs all that is shown by cable operators. Some hotels (especially in the five stars
categories) have their own satellite dish and also broadcast movies via their VCR channels.The
hotels broadcast an average of 3 Indian films and 3 English films a day. The films are broadcast
via cable channels and, where appropriate, cable connections from hotels operators, then show
movies to their customers in hotel rooms (except movies on satellite channels), it would be a
violation of copyright from the point of view of commercial law. 3

CONCLUSION:

The problem of copyright piracy in India must be considered in the context of economic
dimension of the country. India is a big country with underdeveloped infrastructure.Most
copyrighted products are used in many places and violations can occur in many ways, although
not all can result in a large-scale loss of people.Commercial interest for rightholders. Given the
complexity of the problem for a country of the size of India, it is not possible to control
copyright piracy in all its manifestations through laws it only means large-scale improvements in
the general level of awareness of the public will. Be the first and main deterrent of evil.The
copyright control mechanism should to succeed in obtaining exemplary punishment for higher
officials guilty of grave violations,Instead of trying to handle many minor offenses

3
STUDY ON COPYRIGHT PIRACY IN INDIA
SPONSORED BY Ministry of Human Resource Development Government of India
QUESTIONNAIRE:

1. Name of the person of theatre or the person interviewed:

Ajith.

2. The designation he's/she's holding in the theatre:

Usher

3. Name of the theatre:

Vijay Cinemas

4. The theatre impose checking before entering the screen?

Occassionally.

5. How do they surveil after the movie is screened?

(Paraphrased) Surveilance is during the movie and not after. However it is not viable for us to
run checks during the main picture as loitering about in the screen will be a huge difficulty for
viewers and might cause consumer outrage. Hence we are unfortunately handicapped to running
a quick preliminary scan with our eyes during the first half an hour, during which we have the
excuse of waiting inside the screen for guiding late arrivals to their seats.

6. What if there's a person caught under piracy in theatre?

It is a hassle for the theatre managers to get involved in such litigation. Hence we simply use our
method of confiscating the devices if its a camera, and if its a phone we delete the file and return
it. This is not a foolproof system however as many clever tricks can be done in the phone to
retain the file which I dont understand. Hence occassionally we do run the risk of letting pirates
walk away. However even catching such recording individuals is very rare as they are very
discreet in their work and nothing can be done. We do not even have the staff to frisk persons
and a large part of our audiences would take serious offence to the same.

7. Are you aware of the copyright act, 1957 and the punishments under the law

NO,I'm not.

8. Whether there was any previous incident of piracy?

Not in my time, but my colleagues have narrated a couple of incidents from a few years back.

9. If so what was the act done to the person guilty?

As i mentioned we deleted his file and sent him away.

10. What are the rights of the viewers?

Rights of viewers? They have full freedom in our theatre. Anytime you can come and see.

11. Do people act responsibly in the theatre premises?

Unfortunately no. They act like it is their personal abode and behave carelessly littering and
dirtying the place.

12. How should the workers still improve from their point of view?

Mostly people dont complain but occassionally they have issues no matter what is done. The
manager will always scold us only as it is neccessary before the aggrieved person.

 LA CINEMAS

1. Name of the person of theatre or the person interviewed:

Ranjith

2. The designation he's/she's holding in the theatre:

Floor Manager

3. Name of the theatre:

LA Cinemas

4. The theatre impose checking before entering the screen?

Yes, we have very strict rules and do not allow any foreign ingestibles or persons who have been
drinking.

5. How do they surveil after the movie is screened?

We do not need to check in the screen as we closely inspect all hand baggage for any cameras.

6. What if there's a person caught under piracy in theatre?

We will immediately lead them firmly out of the premises and confiscate their electronics. They
have to unlock it if they wish to have them returned in three days.
 7. Are you aware of the copyright act, 1957 and the punishments under the law

It is not needed. We can take care of piracy informally which works best for everyone. We take
our obligation to our distributors very seriously.

8. Whether there was any previous incident of piracy?

Im not sure if i can disclose that information.

9. If so what was the act done to the person guilty?

Same i cant divulge details about this.

10. What are the rights of the viewers?

They are subject to our explicit terms and conditions.

11. Do people act responsibly in the theatre premises?

We have stringent protocols and enforcement for the same.

12. How should the workers still improve from their point of view?

We take pride in our staff and their stellar performance.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

1.http://copyright.gov.in/Documents/STUDY%20ON%20COPYRIGHT%20PIRACY%20IN%2
0INDIA.pdf

Study conducted by a team on six urban cities all over India regarding violation of various kinds
of copyrights.

2. http://lecatr.people.wm.edu/copy.htm

It provides a vast knowledge about Copy right laws in U.S and we can relate it to our country
very easily.

3. Theatre,Stage directions & Copyright law by Beth Freemal.

This thorough and well-documented discussion of copyright law for the director has careful and
detailed organization, as you’d expect considering where it was published. Part I examines
copyright law, Parts II, III, and IV conclude that stage directions can’t be copyrighted, and Part
IV states that directors ought instead use contract law to protect their work

LIST OF RELEVANT STATUTORY MATERIALS:

1. The Copyright Act,1957.