Fair Use Debate

A new surge is being seen and fair use in copyright is happening, when mass copying of all books throughout the world undertaken by Google books project is declared as fair use by the US conceding copying of whole book/s without the consent of copyright owner. Canada amplified its 2004 position of permission to copy from single copies to multiple copies and further permitted previews to be streamed without paying royalty to owners of music. In Alberta Education v. Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency and Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada v. Bell Canada the position in CCH Canadian Ltd. v. Law Society of Upper Canada is taken further. According to proposition at hand where Cambridge and Oxford University Press along

For example, if one wishes to criticize a novelist, he should have the freedom to quote a portion of the novelist’s work without asking permission. In the absence of such a freedom, copyright owners could stifle any negative criticism about their work. This feature of copyright law is popularly referred to as ‘fair use’ or ‘fair dealing’. Fair dealing allows users to engage in activities that might otherwise amount to copyright

CL is normally issued in recognition of protection of larger public interest. Under a compulsory license, an individual or company seeking to use another’s patent can do so and pays the rights holder a set fee for the license. More recently an area of fierce debate has been that of drugs for treating serious diseases such as Malaria, HIV and AIDS. Such drugs are widely available in the western world and would help to manage the epidemic of these diseases in developing countries. Such drugs are found too expensive for developing countries when supplied by patentees. The objective of this part is to examine the phenomenon of CL in pursuance of public interest by individual countries with a focus on India.

The Paris Convention, 1883 provides that each contracting state may take legislative measures for the grant of CL. The concept of CL is prevalent from the time of Paris Convention and continues in TRIPs. TRIPs agreement allows CL by member states in an effort to strike a balance between public and private interests. The expression ‘other use without authorization of the right holder’ is new nomenclature for ‘compulsory license’ and is conferred by competent authority. The phrase appears in the title of article 31, but does not specifically list the reasons that might be cited to issue a compulsory