BROADLY SPEAKING: SHORT-VIDEO PLATFORMS: NEW ABUSERS OF COPYRIGHTS IN INDIA

Profile of the Author: Mudit Saxena is a third-year student, pursuing integrated BBA+LLB from School of Law, Galgotias University.

“When you have the wit of your own, it’s a pleasure to credit other people for theirs.”- Criss Jami, Killosophy

INTRODUCTION

The 21st century has marked drastic technological advancement in the country and this advancement has made technology cheaper and easily accessible. Mobile phone and internet are the two most suitable examples for this advancement. The easy access to the internet and mobile phones has provided the users to reach the public at large via social media. This has boomed the number of internet users in the country and at present India has 696.77 million internet users.[1]

Therefore, bearing this fact and statistics in mind, entrepreneurs have indulged themselves in developing applications that can attract these users, especially the youth to use their application. This indulgence has given rise to short-video platforms like Tik Tok, Roposo, Dubsmash, etc. These short-video platforms have gained gigantic popularity in the country and worldwide as well in a very short span of time.

UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT OF SHORT-VIDEO APPLICATION

The short-video applications (hereinafter referred to as Apps) are video-sharing apps that allow the users to create and share 15-30 seconds of videos. It is a sort of the new age era Karaoke. These applications also act as a social media platform and these short videos of the different genre can be viewed and shared within the app itself.

These applications prominently use songs, dialogues, audio clips, etc. and the user can create her/his video by lip-syncing to them. These apps help the users to showcase their acting, dancing, singing and other talents as well.

These apps provide a variety of audios for the user to choose from and also provide an option to the users to upload the audios as well. Therefore, audios are the very basis for the functioning of these apps and can be regarded as the heart and soul of these evolved form of Karaoke applications.

Copyright and the Audios on these Apps

Before establishing a nexus between the functionality of these applications and the copyright, let us understand the concept of copyright.

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, “Copyright (or author’s right) is a legal term used to describe the rights that creators have over their literary and artistic works. Works covered by copyright range from books, music, paintings, sculpture, and films, to computer programs, databases, advertisements, maps, and technical drawings.” [2]

In other terms, the copyright protects the interest of the proprietors. Being versatile in nature, copyright can protect a varied number of creations as named in the definition stated above. The protection of copyright can only be claimed for the expression and not the idea.

Now, after being familiarised with the concept of copyright let us understand the nexus between the applications and copyright.

It is well known that these apps mostly use audios from famous movies, songs, albums, poetry, etc. therefore, they rely upon the creators of the audios to use them in their apps. Hence, the developers or the owners of these apps are under a legal obligation to obtain the respective rights for the audio used by them in their application. Hence, the makers of the app have to acquire the rights from the rightful owner of these creations.

Copyright Infringement amidst these Mobile Applications

Since, these applications have compatibility with ever graphic user interface (GUI) be it Android, Apple, Windows, etc. therefore, they have reached upon every device and is user friendly. However, this increases the instances of copyright infringement via these apps.

Let us understand how these applications are prone to copyright infringement and liable for the same.

As stated above, these applications permit the users to upload audio for lip-syncing or for any other purpose and does not take into consideration whether the user uploading possesses the rights upon that audio or not. Hence, violates the rights of the rightful owner/creator protected under the copyright laws of the country. [3]

India made 302 requests to Tik Tok app alone for the copyright issues among which 291 were legal and 11 were emergency requests.[4] Therefore, these copyright infringement degrades the Intellectual Property Environment of the country. According to the GIPC International Intellectual Property Index, 2020 India ranked 40 out of 53 countries [5] and such copyrights infringement have been one of the reasons for such low ranking of the country.

What can be the plausible reasons for these infringements?

Attaining Copyright is a long process and time-consuming. Therefore, it takes over a year to obtain the license to use the creation. This is the reason, why Facebook took a year or so to introduce the music feature on Instagram.

The sudden ban of Tik Tok created a spontaneous opportunity for other players to glide in and become a new leader. Therefore, to become the new heartthrob among the youth, each alternate app was required to act quick before the others. This act of being the first and the most agile, the owners of these apps did not bother to obtain the license and this led to a large scale infringement of the copyrights of the music labels and the concerned creators.

CURRENT SCENARIO, POST TIK TOK BAN

The Government of India on 29 June 2020 banned the heartthrob app of the youth due to privacy and security concerns. Tik Tok held a monopoly over the short-video apps market and had various brand collaborations. However, post-ban, the monopoly came to an end and created an opportunity for other developers to take advantage of the current situation. Roposo, Triller, Takatak (MX Player), Josh, Mitron, Snack Video etc. are emerging as the new players in the race to take over the vacant throne of Tik Tok.

This current situation has given rise to competition in the market on the cost of large scale slaughter of copyright. The biggest aggrieved of the copyright is the music label T-series. Neeraj Kalyan, President, T-series mentioned that these alternatives of Tik Tok are using their music without any permission. Mr Kalyan also mentioned Roposo as a “habitual infringer”. As a music company, T-series can only serve a legal notice for this blatant copyright infringement.

CONCLUSION

IP laws in India are till date under development and the apex court over the time has tried to incorporate the global development in the Indian legal system. The apps like Tik Tok (short-video apps) have emerged a strong hurdle in making an IP friendly environment. The government has to help the victims of copyright infringement by strengthening IP laws. Moreover, these situations are going to degrade the global ranking of the country. There must be a fast track government body which can scrutinize the infringement at a greater rate and legal obligations be established. In addition to this, a legal framework must be set-up which governs the application over Google’s Playstore, Apple’s Appstore, etc. This instance, clearly indicate that India is in a dire need to look upon the IP laws of the country.

Disclaimer: This article is an original submission of the Author. Niti Manthan does not hold any liability arising out of this article. Kindly refer to our Terms of use or write to us in case of any concerns.

REFERENCES

[1] Sandhya Keelrey, Number of internet users in India from 2015 to 2020 with a forecast until 2025, https://www.statista.com/statistics/255146/number-of-internet-users-in-india/ (Last Date Accessed on 21 November, 2020).

[2] Copyright, https://www.wipo.int/copyright/en/ (Last accessed on 21 November, 2020).

[3] (Indian) Copyright Act, 1957, Section 13.

[4] Megha Mandavia, TikTok report shows India sends highest number of user information and content takedown requests, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/tiktok-report-shows-india-sends-highest-number-of-user-information-and-content-takedown-requests/articleshow/76875109.cms?from=mdr (Last accessed on 11 August, 2020)

[5] Erin Duffin, GIPC International Intellectual Property Index 2020, https://www.statista.com/statistics/257583/gipc-international-intellectual-property-index/ (Last accessed on 12 August, 2020).