A Critical Legal Analysis Of Copyright Protection & Digital Piracy On OTT Platforms In India
- IJLLR Journal
- 3 days ago
- 1 min read
Prakhar Srivastava & Dr. Tanya N Chaudhury, Amity University, Noida.
ABSTRACT
The tremendous increase in the Over-The-Top (OTT) streaming services in India has generated a vibrant digital content world that is at the same time marred by unprecedented digital piracy. The paper is a critical analysis of the sufficiency of the current laws of India in protecting copyright on OTT platforms, and whether the Copyright Act, 1957, the Information Technology Act, 2000, and supplementary regulatory tools are adequate in combating the various and technologically advanced types of digital piracy of streaming content. The paper uses a doctrinal and comparative legal approach, relying on both primary (statutes and judicial decisions) and secondary academic sources, and providing comparative lessons on the United States, European Union, and Singapore.
The main thesis presented is that the copyright protection system in India is characterized by three fundamental flaws namely; substantive weaknesses in the protection of technological protection systems; structural weaknesses in the tuning of intermediary liability; and systemic weaknesses in enforcement that makes the available remedies ineffective to counter the pace and magnitude of modern piracy activities. Even though judicial innovation, especially coming up with dynamic injunction as it was in the case of UTV Software communications Ltd. v. 1337X.to has to some extent addressed the shortcomings of legislation, they do not qualify as solutions to wholesome statutory reform. It is concluded in the paper that successful copyright protection on OTT sites involves a concerted reform agenda that includes legislative change, better enforcement of criminal law, institutional capacity building, and international collaboration.
Keywords: Copyright, OTT Platforms, Digital Piracy, Dynamic Injunctions, Intermediary Liability, Technological Protection Measures, TRIPS, WIPO Copyright Treaty.
