COPYRIGHT ACT

 

Copyright:-          Copyright gives the author of an original work exclusive right for a certain time period in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation, after which time the work is said to enter the public domain. Copyright applies to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete and fixed in a medium. Some jurisdictions also recognize "moral rights" of the creator of a work, such as the right to be credited for the work. Copyright is described under the umbrella term intellectual property along with patents and trademarks.

History:-              The concept of copyright originates with the Statute of Anne (1710) in Britain. It established the author of a work as the owner of the right to copy that work and the concept of a fixed term for that copyright. The Statute of Anne was the first real copyright act, and gave the authors rights for a fixed period, a fourteen year term for all works published the Statute, after which the copyright expired.

Copyright Act:-    In 1790 US Congress passed an act for the encouragement of learning by securing copies of maps, charts, and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies  "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries"

Copyright Act in Pakistan:-     In Pakistan, copyright protection is governed by the provisions of the Copyright Ordinance, 1962 ("the Ordinance") which is modeled on the English Act of 1914. Pakistan is a member of Berne Copyright Union and the Universal Copyright Convention.

One of the most significant developments in relation to the protection of copyright in Pakistan is the recent promulgation of the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 1992 ("the Amendment Act"). Copyright protection originally available to literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, cinematographic and architectural works, books, photographs, newspapers, engravings, lectures, records (defined as "any disc, tape, wire, perforated roll or other device in which sounds are embodied so as to be capable of being reproduced therefrom, other than a sound track associated with a cinematographic work") and sculptures is now extended to computer software, periodicals, video films and all kind of audio-visual works.