Copyright Challenges For Content Creators And Freelancers: A Comparative Analysis Of India, UK & US
- IJLLR Journal
- 46 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Gangeswar G, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore
ABSTRACT
This paper compares how India, the United Kingdom, and the United States handle copyright for freelancers and content creators, and why the promise of “authorship” so often fizzles in practice. For example, the Copyright Law in India has emphasised the producer/owner aspect of copyright law at the expense of the author/creator once a work has been included in a film. The 2012 amendment to the Copyright Act, 1957, is an attempt to support songwriter and composer authors/creators through the introduction of enforceable non-waivable royalties, but enforcement capabilities are still not very strong and many digital creators will not be able to benefit. In the UK, the CDPA 1988 has authors/creators retain initial ownership of their works and has introduced moral rights; however, it has also essentially permitted producers and owners to routinely waive moral rights, which ultimately undermines both initial ownership and moral rights. In the US, § 201(a) again acknowledges authorship but many works are created for 'work for hire' and as such ownership of the work reverts back to the person who commissioned the work; although § 203 provides authors with termination rights in principle, in practice these rights have limited use. Law and audience have become the shared domain of the platforms. For instance, YouTube’s Content ID and the licensing terms on TikTok operate as private rulebooks that entail an excessive number of licenses and favour large rightsholders. And with the advent of AI, this has added to the problems; for example, creators’ works are continuously taken to create training sets, often without both consent and attribution, which subsequently results in diminished value and recognition over time. The law acknowledges freelance writers as authors; however, they are frequently sidelined by contracts, platforms and technology. To remedy this is not straightforward, however one realistic direction to take is to extend rights that cannot be waived beyond legacy industries, to prevent the recruitment of exploitative terms pursuant to law and develop international standards relevant to independent creators. None of these solutions are easy to implement, yet each must be done in order for copyright to actually deliver on its promise of recognition and fair remuneration.
Keywords: Copyright, Freelancers, Content Creators, Platform Governance, Work-for-Hire.
