Licence to Reproduce and Publish Works

In one line

If a book is not on sale in India at a sensible price, anyone may apply for a licence to reprint it here for teaching, after three, five or seven years depending on what kind of book it is.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 32A of the Copyright Act, 1957 provides that where, after the expiration of the relevant period from the first publication of an edition of a literary, scientific or artistic work, copies of that edition are not made available in India, or have not been put on sale in India for six months, to the public or in connection with systematic instructional activities at a price reasonably related to that normally charged in India for comparable works, any person may apply to the Commercial Court for a licence to reproduce and publish the work in printed or analogous forms at that price or lower, for the purposes of systematic instructional activities.

Why the law has this at all

Because the problem is availability, not translation. A textbook in English does not need translating for an Indian student; it needs to exist here at a price a student can pay.

Because a foreign edition priced for a foreign market is out of reach. The same book at four times an Indian student's monthly budget is not available in any real sense.

And because Berne allows it. Appendix article III lets a country substitute for the exclusive right of reproduction a system of non-exclusive and non-transferable licences, granted by the competent authority, for reproduction and publication for use in connection with systematic instructional activities, where copies of an edition have not been distributed in that country at a price reasonably related to that normally charged there.

The two triggers

Section 32A(1)(a). The copies of such edition "are not made available in India".

Section 32A(1)(b). Such copies "have not been put on sale in India for a period of six months".

In either case, to the public or in connection with systematic instructional activities, at a price reasonably related to that normally charged in India for comparable works by the owner of the right of reproduction or a person authorised by him.

And the licence is for a purpose. To reproduce and publish "at the price at which such edition is sold or at a lower price for the purposes of systematic instructional activities".

The relevant period

The shortest period is for the fastest moving subjects. A science textbook goes out of date in three years; a novel does not.