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Copyright is  a long  established form  of intellectual property right. Modern Copyright laws protect literary and dramatic works, musical works, artistic works including maps and technical drawings, etc., photograp- hs and audiovisual works (cinematograph films, video etc.).
 
The principal purpose of copyright is to protect expression of thoughts and ideas.
 
Copyright protects ‘literary and artistic works’ and includes every production in the literary, scientific and artistic domain,  whatever may  be the  mode or form  of expression. The expressions ‘literary and artistic works’ includes arts, writings, music, paintings and sculptures, softwares, etc and includes every original work of authorship.
 
 
  Copyright protects any new and original arrangement or compilation of material by an author by using his own skills, labour and capital.
 
  The Copyright Act, 1957 came into effect from January 1958.  This Act has been  amended five times  since then, i.e., in 1983, 1984, 1992, 1994 and 1999, with the amendment of 1994 being the most substantial.  
     
  The Indian Copyright  Act today  is  compliant with  most international  conventions and  treaties in  the field of copyrights.  India is a member of the Berne Convention of 1886 (as modified at Paris in 1971), the Universal Copyright Convention of 1951 and the Agreement on  Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement of 1995.  Though India is not a member of the Rome Convention of 1961, the  Copyright Act, 1957 is fully compliant with the Rome Convention provisions.  
     
  The Berne Convention and the TRIPS Agreement stipulate  the subsistence  of  copyright in  original literary,  dramatic, musical and artistic works; cinematographic  film and sound  recordings. These classes includes variety of works like books, pamphlets and other writings; lectures, addresses, sermons; dramatic or dramatic-musical  works, choreographic works; musical composition, chirographic works; drawing, painting, architecture, sculpture, engraving; and lithography, photography, maps, plans, sketches, three dimensional works, translations, encyclopaedias and anthologies, softwares codes, multimedia productions, etc.  
     
  The duration  of copyrights  varies from  country  to  country. The minimum  duration of  copyright  protection  under  Berne  Convention  is 50 years. European Union and for countries of the European economic area  and in the  US the  duration is 70  years. In India  copyrights  are protected  for a period of sixty years from  the beginning  of the calendar  year next  following the year in which the author dies. The term of copyrights is calculated from the end of the year of the author’s death.  
     
  Information Required :  
 
•
 Name, address and nationality of the Application.  
 
•
 Nature of the Applicant's interest in the copyright of the work.  
     
  Documents Required :  
 
•
 Description of the work.  
 
•
 Title of the work.  
 
•
 Power of Attorney (neither notarization nor consular legalization required) to be executed by an individual or a representative of a corporation.  
 
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 Four copies of the work.  
       
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