Legal Aspects

Android Copyright Dispute

Shabbir Chunawalla

Google has used Oracle’s programming code in the Android operating system. Oracle filed a suit of copyright infringement in 2010. It accused Google of plagiarising its Jawa software by copying 11,330 lines of computer code, as well as the way it is organised, to create Android, and make huge profits. It is a decade old case. The US Supreme Court said Google engaged in legitimate fair use while using Jawa programming language in the Android operating system. Google used ‘only what was needed to allow users to put their accrued talents to work in a new and transformative programme.’

The SC ruled that allowing Oracle to enforce a copyright on its code would harm the public by making it a ‘lock limiting future creativity of new programmes. Oracle alone would hold the key.’ The ruling spares Google the massive damages which otherwise it would have paid to Oracle.

Big Brother Indian State

Shabbir Chunawalla

The rules framed for online media, e-news channels and OTTs put restrictions on freedom of expression and dissemination of information. The government has assumed wide ranging discretionary powers to vet the content on social media and to take punitive action. The messengers too will be compelled to break the encryption . The grievance address mechanism will shoot up costs. Digital news sites and OTTs will be under a three-tier structure to regulate them. The Inter Departmental Committee (IDC) of government is the final tier.

The time to take down content has been reduced from 48 hours to 36 hours. The digital platforms would have to comply with a Code of Ethics framed by the Press Council or Code under Cable TV Network Regulation Act. It contains negative list of issues pertaining to sex and violence. An aggrieved person submits grievance to the mechanism established. Literally, it is open field. There is a compliance officer and nodal officer to interface with the law enforcement agencies. On being dissatisfied, the aggrieved party approaches the self regulating body and then to an oversight mechanism. There could be endless harassment.

Messangers have to identify the originator of the message violating the code. It is in response to judicial orders or government order.

It could lead to environment where the government has an unfettered freedom to shut down content.

There are issues of fake news on digital channels. Powers that be put their own spin on the digital media. It is necessary to look into this. However, these guidelines go far too much. There could be selective application too as there is lot of discretion available.

Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2012

Shabbir Chunawalla

The Copyright Act, 1957 was amended in 2012 to give writers and lyricists a leverage in industry heavily biased in favour of producers and stars. The Act makes contractual agreements mandatory. It assures the writer royalties when the work is showcased outside a cinema hall. The royalty is collected by the copyright society. It is managed jointly by the writers and producers. Though after a long delay, a society has been formed, its registration is still pending with the Registrar of Copyright. He has invited objections and suggestions from the stake holders.

As per the amended law, a writer cannot sign off his royalty rights. As the writer is the first owner of the work, assigning ownership does not take away the author’s right to royalty as the first owner. The producer now gets 50 per cent of the royalty and the remainder will be divided among writers.

The law assures a royalty to the writer when the work is showcased outside the cinema hall.

The right to royalty remains with the writer as long as he/she is a live, and with his/her family 60 years after his/her death.

After registration, the society will propose the percentages in the story, screenplay and dialogue categories.

Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019

Shabbir Chunawalla

The draft of PDP Bill was first tabled in Parliament in December, 2019. In January 2020, a JPC or Joint Parliamentary Committee was constituted to study it.

The Joint Parliamentory Committee took up the Bill for discussion since January, 2020 and held 66 sittings spending 160 hours for deliberations on the Bill and discuss it clause by clause. There were 800 representations to the committee. It consulted the other concerned ministries, stakeholders and other members themselves. They have finalised the Bill after building consensus on all aspects of the final draft.

There were concerns about the proposed privacy law. There were concerns about the access given to the government to citizens’ data without consent. There was the issue of including the non-personal data in the new law. There was concern about the absence of judicial participation in selecting the head of the regulatory body.

It is to be seen how the data is to be stored. There are Standing Committee recommendations on important legislations being non-binding on the government.

There was high concern about Section 35, which allows the Centre to exempt its agencies from some or all of its provisions for national security and public disorder. Members were in favour of tightening the exceptions. Some had sought its total removal.

Biomedical Waste

Shabbir Chunawalla

Any waste generated during —

  • diagnosis, treatment or immunisation of human beings or
  • animals or
  • in research activities in the production or testing of biologicals.

Bio-medical waste consists of —

Solids such as:

  • catheters, tubes
  • disposable geuins, masks
  • scrubs
  • surgical staplers
  • gloves, surgical sutures and staples
  • wound dressings

Liquids such as :

  • blood
  • body fluids
  • tissues and cells
  • organs
  • tissue cultures

Sharps such as :

  • razors, scalpel, blades, lancets

Materials made of glass such as:

  • curvettes and slides

Materials of metal such as :

  • stylets, needles

Plastic materials such as :

  • pipettes and tips
  • syringes

Laboratory waste such as:

  • animal carcasses

Hazardous chemicals with biological components

Medicinal plants

Radio active material with biological components.

Norms

  • Bio-medical waste shall not be mixed with other waste.
  • It should be segregated into containers/bags at the point of generation prior to its storage, transportation, treatment and disposal.
  • Untreated waste should not be stored for more than 48 hours.
  • If necessary to store more than 48 hours, the authorised person must take the permission of the presented authority and ensure that the waste doesnot effect human health and environment. ( Source : MPCB ).

 

 

Copyright — New Thinking

Shabbir Chunawalla

Gladwell quotes Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford Law Professor, who feels that copy right is not exactly ‘ property right’. A garden bench lifted from someone’s backyard is a theft, as the person steals it, and the owner does not have it any longer. However, if the nice garden furniture is kept in mind, and similar furniture is obtained from some source, it could not be called theft. What about the jacket you wear? Exactly, what do I take away from you?

In publishing verbatim lifting of material is crime, and rightly so. But if just an idea is borrowed, and improved upon greatly so as to create a valuable work of art, what is it? In such situations, borrowing may be a compliment.

Three Idiots transformed Five Point Someone into a work of art of higher order.

We should think deeply about the economics and legality behind issues if copyright.

Creative Commons (CC) — Copyrights in New Light

Shabbir Chunawalla

In 2007, Lawrence Liang, a Bangalore-based lawyer and Shishir Jha, Associate Professor, Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT-B launched creative commons ( CC ) to popularise the open licensing system. They started copy-left  movement, as opposed to copy-right  law which is restrictive. CC has been founded as NP organisation in the US in 2001. It has six kinds of licenses but all these insist on a need to attribute the work to the creator and seeking permission to share. Some licenses allow remix and commercial use, whereas some do not.

In many fields such as music and films, the copyrights have been assigned to the recording company, or the producer or the publisher. The creator remains out of picture. The creator is given one time payment or meagre royalties. Copyrights laws give  false sense of security to the creative people. The most important thing is the ability of the owner to exercise his right. This could be done through free licencing too. Even the present copyright law mentions that a copyright without monetary consideration  is acceptable, with a necessary attribution to creator. That endorses the open licensing in spirit. However, the amended copyright law with monetary considerations specified would not be conductive to free licensing.

In the IT domain, the concept of CC is very much in use. Free licensing is about the flow of ideas.

Product Patent : Some Problems

Shabbir Chunawalla

Human-DNA-Sequencing-picturesThe patent system was conceived to encourage innovation but has become vulnerable to excesses that have the opposite effect –

  • Locks up ideas
  • Discourages competition
  • Hurts the advancement of diagnostics and therapeutics

The US Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that human gene may not be patented , underlining  that laws of nature, natural phenomena and abstract ideas are not patentable because they are not themselves innovation but the basic tool of scientific and technological work .

The processes of isolating the DNA are too well understood by geneticists and so cannot be patented. However , if companies can establish that their methods of isolating genes are innovative or that the DNA under consideration has been synthesized in a lab need not lose heart – they can obtain patents on new applications of knowledge gained from genetic research.

While genes are certainly a product of nature , the isolation of fragments and knowledge of their properties are the outcome of huge financial and material resources invested with its attendant risks. Researchers who discover human gene sequences responsible for a particular disease may not have adequate incentive to disclose the new discovery . Even scientific exploration for new and rare organisms will get a setback .