Moral rights in developing countries:the example of India, part 1

The “moral right” is an aspect of a copyright law that seeks to protect the non-commercial, personal, or spiritual interests of an author in his work. This paper argues that moral rights can make an important contribution to culture in developing countries. In particular, moral rights provide a counterweight to the increasingly commercial orientation of the international copyright system under the TRIPS Agreement, which may ultimately prove to be damaging to development and culture. The paper considers the innovative treatment of moral rights by Indian legislators and judges as an example of how the cultural potential of these rights may be realized, and attempts a critical assessment of the current Indian trend towards a more restrictive treatment of these rights. It is in two parts. Part I covers copyright policy in India, traditional approaches to moral rights in India and moral rights in Indian Copyright Act. The Part II, to be published in the next issue, will deal with judicial development and interpretation of moral rights, moral rights and development and future of moral rights in India