Adaptation and Translation

In one line

Turning a work into something else is the owner's right, and the Act's definition of an adaptation is wide enough to cover almost any re-working.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: by section 14(a)(v) and (vi) of the Copyright Act, 1957 the owner of a literary, dramatic or musical work has the exclusive right to make any translation of the work and to make any adaptation of it; and by section 2(a) an adaptation includes any use of a work involving its re-arrangement or alteration.

Why the law has this at all

Because a novel made into a play, a play made into a film and a book translated into another language are all worth money, and none of them is a copy. A right confined to reproduction would leave the author with nothing in any of them.

And because the adaptation is itself a new work. The translator's translation is a literary work of its own, protected in its own right, which is why permission has to be obtained first: the adapter cannot cure the wrong by pointing to his own creativity.

Berne article 8 gives the translation right and article 12 the adaptation right, and both are among the minimum rights.

The provisions

Section 2(a), adaptation, means: (i) in relation to a dramatic work, the conversion of the work into a non-dramatic work; (ii) in relation to a literary work or an artistic work, the conversion of the work into a dramatic work by way of performance in public or otherwise; (iii) in relation to a literary or dramatic work, any abridgement of the work or any version of the work in which the story or action is conveyed wholly or mainly by means of pictures in a form suitable for reproduction in a book, or in a newspaper, magazine or similar periodical; (iv) in relation to a musical work, any arrangement or transcription of the work; and (v) in relation to any work, any use of such work involving its re-arrangement or alteration.

Section 14(a)(v). To make any translation of the work.

Section 14(a)(vi). To make any adaptation of the work.

Section 14(a)(vii). To do, in relation to a translation or an adaptation of the work, any of the acts specified in relation to the work in sub-clauses (i) to (vi).

Section 14(c)(v) and (vi) give an artistic work the same adaptation right and the same follow-through.

Broken down

Five kinds of adaptation, and the fifth swallows the others. Clause (v), "in relation to any work, any use of such work involving its re-arrangement or alteration", was inserted by the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 1994 and is as wide as language allows. The first four remain useful because they name particular acts that would otherwise be argued about.