The Copyright Board: Its Life and Its Abolition

In one line

For sixty-four years a specialist board decided compulsory licences, tariff appeals and rectification. In 2017 it was merged into another tribunal, in 2021 that tribunal was abolished, and its work is now split between High Courts and Commercial Courts.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: sections 11 and 12 of the Copyright Act, 1957, which constituted the Copyright Board and provided for its powers and procedure, were omitted by section 10 of the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 with effect from 4 April 2021, and the functions that the Board and then the Appellate Board exercised were transferred to the Commercial Court and, for rectification and appeals from the Registrar, to the High Court.

Why the law had a Board at all

Because the questions are technical and recurring. What royalty is reasonable for a radio station, whether a refusal to license was unreasonable, whether a tariff contains an anomaly, whether an entry in the Register should be expunged.

Because a specialist body can fix general rates. The Rules assume an authority that can determine a royalty by general order and publish it, which no court does.

And because the alternative was a civil suit. Section 31's whole point was to give an aggrieved user something quicker and cheaper than litigation.

What the Board was

Section 11 before 26 May 2017, its four sub-sections.

(1) The constitution. "As soon as may be after the commencement of this Act, the Central Government shall constitute a Board to be called the Copyright Board which shall consist of a Chairman and two other members."

(2) Salaries and terms of service. Such as may be prescribed, with a proviso that neither the salary and allowances nor the other terms and conditions of service of the Chairman or any other member shall be varied to his disadvantage after appointment.

(3) The Chairman's qualification. "The Chairman of the Copyright Board shall be a person who is, or has been, a Judge of a High Court or is qualified for appointment as a Judge of High Court."

(4) The staff. The Central Government may, after consultation with the Chairman, appoint a Secretary to the Board and such other officers and employees as may be considered necessary for the efficient discharge of its functions.

Then section 11 was replaced. The Finance Act, 2017 substituted a new section 11 with effect from 26 May 2017, under which the Appellate Board established under section 83 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 became, from the commencement of Part XIV of Chapter VI of that Finance Act, the Appellate Board for the purposes of the Copyright Act, exercising the jurisdiction, powers and authority conferred on it by or under the Act.