Indian government says copyright framework fit for purpose for AI
March 5, 2024
On 9 February, the Indian Ministry of Industry and Commerce issued a statement headed ‘Existing IPR regime well-equipped to protect AI generated works, no need to create separate category of rights’.
You can see the statement here.
The statement says:
there is no requirement to create a separate category of rights for AI and related innovations in the Indian IPR Regime
and
The exclusive economic rights of a copyright owner such as the right of reproduction, translation, adaptation etc. granted by the Copyright Act, 1957 obligates the user of Generative AI to obtain permission to use their works for commercial purposes if such use is not covered under the fair dealing exceptions.
India’s copyright legislation allows ‘fair dealing’ for the following purposes:
- private or personal use, including research
- criticism or review, whether of that work or of any other work
- the reporting of current events and current affairs, including the reporting of a lecture delivered in public
This is a similar approach to that in the Australian Copyright Act, which allows fair dealing for specified purposes. They include criticism or review, reporting news, and research or study.