The Delhi High Court  on 9 December restored for trial an ongoing copyright case and allowed the iconic  Rameshwari Photocopy Service which operates within the campus with the permission of the University to continue with its service to Delhi’s student and teacher community.
Three international publishers, University Press, Cambridge University Press and Taylor & Francis had taken the photocopier to court in 2011, alleging that the kiosk was violating their copyright and ‘at the instance of Delhi University’, was causing huge financial losses to them as students stopped buying their text books. The court had suspended operation of the photocopier in 2012. In September 2016, a one-judge bench of Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw had lifted the ban on the photocopier, allowing it to be back on business and ruled, preparing course packs was not a violation of copyright law.
The publishers had gone on appeal. The two- judges bench of Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Yogesh Khanna said, ‘We declare that the law in India would not warrant an approach to answer the question by looking at whether the course pack has become a textbook, but by considering whether the inclusion of the copyrighted work in the course pack was justified by the purpose of the course pack i.e. for instructional use by the teacher to the class and this would warrant an analysis of the course pack with reference to the objective of the course, the course content and the list of suggested readings given by the teacher to the students. This would require expert evidence.’
Justice Nandrajog in his endeavour to give a  fair opportunity, observed in his well-known poetic style, ‘After all, in the melody of the statute, all notes should be heard…. A melody is the outcome of the sounds created when different instruments, such as a lute, flute, timbale, harp and drums are played in harmony. The notes of the instruments which are loud and resonating have to be controlled so that the sound of the  delicate instruments can be heard.’
Samyak Narayan Jain, advocate, Delhi High Court, told Book Link, one thing which has influenced the verdict of the division bench  is the facet of ‘prudence’. The appellate court ex facie has sent a clear message that ‘use’ and not ‘abuse’ of the ‘fair use exception’ of the copyright law shall be the order of the land. ‘The Publishers’ right of commercial exploitation of their artistic or literary work has been interpreted in the manner so as to be subservient to the intellectual aspirations of the society.’ It is prerequisite for a well-informed society that the copyright law is applied with steadfastness so as to enhance its
‘knowledge quotient’.
Kanishk Shekhar, a DU graduate and now a faculty says, ‘India has poor implementation of IPR & Copyrights. We all studied from photocopied materials. But I’m  not in favour of it. It doesn’t serve any purpose other than passing the exam. A student while reading the book discovers many new things, which broaden their horizon.’
The official policies in many universities require that teachers of graduate and post graduate programmes keep all their material online and anything online can be printed. The UNESCO IPR open access for research document also supports student access. Aman Ujjwal