Copyright Act, 1963
|
Rights of owner of copyright in respect of infringing copies. |
24.—(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the owner of any copyright shall be entitled to all such rights and remedies, in respect of the conversion or detention by any person of an infringing copy, or of any plate used or intended to be used for making infringing copies, as he would be entitled to if he were the owner of every such copy or plate and had been the owner thereof since the time when it was made. | |
(2) Where by virtue of subsection (2) of section 12 (which relates to successive conversions or detentions) of the Statute of Limitations, 1957 , the title of the owner of the copyright to such a copy or plate as is mentioned in subsection (1) of this section would (if he had been the owner of the copy or plate) have been extinguished at the end of the period mentioned in the said subsection (2), he shall not be entitled to any rights or remedies under subsection (1) of this section in respect of anything done in relation to that copy or plate after the end of that period. | ||
(3) A plaintiff shall not be entitled by virtue of this section to any damages or to any other pecuniary remedy (except costs) if it is proved or admitted that, at the time of the conversion or detention in question— | ||
(a) the defendant was not aware, and had no reasonable grounds for suspecting, that copyright subsisted in the work or other subject-matter to which the action relates, or | ||
(b) where the articles converted or detained were infringing copies, the defendant believed, and had reasonable grounds for believing, that they were not infringing copies, or | ||
(c) where the article converted or detained was a plate used or intended to be used for making any articles, the defendant believed, and had reasonable grounds for believing, that the articles so made or intended to be made were not, or (as the case may be) would not be, infringing copies. | ||
(4) In this Part of this Act— | ||
“infringing copy”— | ||
(a) in relation to a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, or to such a published edition as is mentioned in section 20 of this Act, means a reproduction otherwise than in the form of a cinematograph film, | ||
(b) in relation to a sound recording, means a record embodying that recording, | ||
(c) in relation to a cinematograph film, means a copy of the film, and | ||
(d) in relation to a television broadcast or a sound broadcast, means a copy of a cinematograph film of it or of part of it or a photograph of part of it or a record embodying a sound recording of it, | ||
being (in any such case) an article the making of which constituted an infringement of the copyright in the work, edition, recording, film or broadcast, or, in the case of an imported article, would have constituted an infringement of that copyright if the article had been made in the State; | ||
“plate” includes any stereotype, stone, block, mould, matrix, transfer, negative or other appliance. |