JOGENDRA NATH SEN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Notwithstanding my appreciation of and concurring in the judgment of my learned brother Ray, J., appearing hereinafter, I have thought it advisable to add a few words for more reasons than one. One reason is the importance of the question, on which our attention could not be drawn to any reported decision of this Court. Another reason is that at some places the precision of the observations of Ray, J., has almost reached the state of aphorism (Sutra), which may require some amount of amplification (Vasva), so that persons not trained in law, but more concerned with copy-right, like authors and publishers, may know where they are.

(2.) The work in question, being a book on Anatomy, is a 'literary work' within the meaning of Clauses(y) and (o) of Section 2 of the Copyright Act, 1957 (hereinafter 'Act' for short). The author of the work is therefore the first owner of the Copyright therein under Section 17 and when published in his lifetime, his right shall subsist until fifty years after his death under Section 22.

(3.) Under Section 14 of the Act, Copyright in a literary work, includes, among others, the exclusive right to publish the work. But the author, as owner of the right to publish, may assign the said right to another under Section 18(1) and Section 18(2) provides that when such a right, say, to publish the work, is assigned to another, the assignee, as respects the right so assigned, is to be treated "as the owner of the Copyright and the provisions of the Act shall have effect accordingly". And, in such a case, the author or the assignor shall, only as respects the other rights specified in Section 14, which are not so assigned, continue to be treated as the owner of the Copyright. In other words, if an author assigns the right to publish his work to another, it is the latter who thenceforward is to be treated for all purposes as the 'owner of the Copyright' as respects the right to publish, even though the author may still continue to be the 'owner of Copyright' as respects all the other rights, except the right to publish. And as respects the 'right to publish' so assigned, even the author, though still owning all the other rights may be held guilty for infringement for publication without the latter's consent.