The primary statute governing the copyright laws in our country is the Copyright Act, 1957 (Copyright Act). The most recent amendment to the statute was made in the year 2012 which came in place with the objective of setting up a reasonable and fair copyright regime to administer revenue sharing and protection of rights of creators, mainly related to sound recordings and films. The amendment made to the Act in the beginning of the last decade added more stringent requirements pertaining to issuance of license in respect of the above mentioned artistic works. The amendment made in 1994 stated that the task of issuing copyright licenses could only be carried out by copyright societies. This was stipulated under Section 33 of the provision. The 2012 amendment to the Act added Section 33(3-A) which made pre-existing entities running the business of granting licenses should register once again within a year of the new amendment coming into place. In other words, any business which had the task of giving out licenses and functioned before the 2012 amendment came into place, needed to register again within a period of 1 year. It is important to be noted that there were no punishments prescribed for non-compliance with the provision.

Under the Copyright Act, there exist comprehensive provisions imposing significant obligations on these entities related to submission of reports of membership and revenue sharing under Section 36. Other obligations such as compliance with tariff scheme order which was passed by the Copyright Board under Section 33-A(2) of the same statute, set out by the Board categorically to different areas of works. Submission of false reports are also penalized under Section 67. Additionally, under Section 35 of the Act, the entities involved in the business are obligated to protect and preserve its members’ interests and function transparently. Another section added via amendment in the year 2012 gave the Central Government the authority to withhold registration in case an entity fails to share control and royalty with the creators of the works. These additions were made to the Act simply with the objective of maintaining a balance between huge companies with significant amounts of capital and individual artists.

However, the addition of Section 33 has created inconsistencies in the understanding of assignment of licenses by the creators themselves. The added section states that only copyright agencies can issue licenses in respect to creating works but is silent about assignment of rights by creators themselves, which is mentioned under Section 18. Section 18 was a part of the 1957 Act which allows the creator/owner/author to assign copyright to any person. An author can assign the copyright to his/her work to a production company which can further assign that copyright to some other entity which implies that there is no requirement for a copyright society in such assignment. However, Section 33 makes it mandatory that only copyright societies can carry out the business of granting license. The inconsistency arises with relation to Section 30 and Section 18, which were parts of the original Act. This has left a significant legal space in copyright laws in total ambiguity as there is no explanation offered in the Act or its Amendments.