COPYRIGHT

Copyright law is a legal term, used to describe the rights that creators have over their literary and artistic works. Protects certain kinds of work which protects artworks, works of literature, plays and dramatic works, images, music and audio recordings, visual design and graphics, typefaces, films and broadcasts.

a) In the case of published work, it has to be published first in Bangladesh but if it is first published in foreign country, the author must be a citizen of Bangladesh or domicile in Bangladesh at the date of publication, or where the author is dead at the time of publication and the work is published after his death, the author must be citizen of Bangladesh or domicile in Bangladesh at the time of his death. [section 5]
[It is important to note that if any work is published in Bangladesh and any other country simultaneously, the work should be considered to be first published in Bangladesh. The work shall be considered to be simultaneously published if the difference of days between the publication in Bangladesh and publication in any other country more than 30 days or the time fixed by the Government]
b) In case of unpublished work, the author is on the date of making of the work a citizen of Bangladesh or domicile in Bangladesh. [section 7]
However, foreign applicants can also get the copyright protection if they are in operation in Bangladesh or they have potentiality to have operation in future.

Required Documents:

1.Power of attorney in original.
2 Affidavit
3 Deed of assignment
4 Representation of the artwork/creation
5. Company memorandum of Association and Articles
6. Declaration describing the fact behind the creation.

All these documents need to be legalized by Bangladesh Mission then verification by Foreign Affairs in Bangladesh.

Term of Copyright:

Copyright does not continue indefinitely. The law provides for a period of time, a duration, during which the rights of the copyright owner exist and at that time, the owner can exclusively enjoy the right. The duration begins with the creation of the work. According to [section 24], the term of copyright for published literary work shall subsist within the lifetime of the author until sixty years from the beginning of the calendar year next following year in which the author dies.

[Explanation: In this section, the reference to the author shall, in the case of a work of joint authorship, be construed as a reference to the author who dies last.]

However, after the expiry of the period, no copyright subsists and the work goes in the public domain; afterwards no reproduction of the work constitutes copyright infringement.

Rights of the Publisher:

According to section 38 of the act, the publisher of an edition of a work shall enjoy the right to authorize the making, by any photographic or similar process, of copies, intended for sale in commerce, of the typographical arrangement of the edition, and such right shall subsist until twenty-five years from the beginning of the calendar year next following the year in which the edition was first published.

Piracy or Infringement of Copyright:

Generally, piracy means the commercial exploitation of any work without the authorization of its author which infringes the exclusive rights protected by law. Section 71 defines the copyright infringement, which indicates that a person may commit infringement by doing any of the acts without any authorization of the author, viz.

• reproducing the work in any material form,
• making adaption or translation of the work,
• publishing the work,
• selling or distributing the work,
• performing the work,
• importing any infringing copy into Bangladesh.

But in case of literary works, the following acts will not constitute infringement, if the work is used for-

• private purpose including research, review and criticism,
• reporting in a newspaper or broadcasting media,
• reproduction of the work for the purpose of a judicial proceeding,
• reading or recitation in public,
• the making of not more than 3 copies of a book by or under the direction of the person in charge of a public library for the use of the library, if such book is not available for sale in Bangladesh.

Remedy Against the Infringement:

According to section 38 of the act, the publisher of an edition of a work shall enjoy the right to authorize the making, by any photographic or similar process, of copies, intended for sale in commerce, of the typographical arrangement of the edition, and such right shall subsist until twenty-five years from the beginning of the calendar year next following the year in which the edition was first published.

If the rights (economic and moral both) of an author or publisher is infringed, they can seek 3 types of remedy i.e. civil, criminal & administrative which are described under section 75 to section 97.

• Civil remedy means to obtain an injunction, or damages which is provided in section 76(1) and the suit shall be dealt with Code of Civil Procedure, 1908
• Criminal remedy implies to initiate criminal proceeding against a person who has committed an offense under this act. Section 82-93 has categorized some offenses related to violation of copyright and such a case will be conducted by the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898.
• Administrative remedy means to seek remedy from the register of copyright to ban the infringed copies under section 74.

In fine, economic and social development depends on creativity. We should respect the amount of hard work, labor and creativity that is needed to produce an original literary work. Every citizen should have the awareness and basic notion of copyright. Proper protection of copyright will encourage the writers and publishers to produce more literary works which will help us to be a civilized nation.

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