Entertainment Industry And Intellectual Property Protection in India

Entertainment is one of the most happening Industries in India. Though the industry and services offered is not perceived the same way; as services offered by a business entity or organizations in a stream of business; the size of the industry has significant impact in terms of the mass reach, jobs created, economy and technology absorption.

Getting to the details of forms of Entertainment and shows; the most common mediums are:

Each of the above programs or shows is a result of the Script or Story writers, directors, Music Composers, Artists Choreographers & Technicians and Organizers. The kind of work that goes into creation of such a work will be in terms of the Story, Creativity, Music, Dialogue, Art works and technologies. The works are a result of Intellectual learning and applications. Hence there is a need to protect the Intellectual Property to retain the rights over the work; since copying of the work is very easy in case of cinematic works & publications.

The forms of protecting such Intellectual Property can be by means of Copyright protection for the works and Legal Agreements between the parties in interaction & transaction. The model and mechanism of the Entertainment shows and mediums itself necessitates strong legal agreements; since the realization of the revenue in most cases is only after the completion of the work.

The body for Copyright protection is the Copyright Office under the HRD Ministry. The Copyright works are governed by The Copyright Act, 1957 and This Act has been amended five times since then, i.e., in 1983, 1984, 1992, 1994 and 1999, with the amendment of 1994 being the most substantial. (Source: Copyright office website).

In India steps towards Copyright protection has significantly improved and campaigns against piracy have appreciated the industry to take legal measures and avoid piracy. With the industry size anticipated to grow from the present INR 652 Billion in 2010 to INR 1275 billion by 2015 (Source: FICCI Press Release); steps will be taken to strengthen the IP protection and reduce reproduction of the works. Since India is a land of multiple languages, we could see copyright law adoption across languages to protect the entertainment related works.