The Copy rights is the rights of the authors/creatures of “original works of authorship” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works, both published and unpublished.
England’s “Statute of Anne” is regarded as the first copyright law. It was passed in 1709. This law for the first time accorded exclusive rights to authors and limited the duration of such exclusive rights to a certain number of years, after which all works would pass into the public domain.
In Pakistan the first law on copyright was the Copyright Act, 1914. It was modeled after the U.K. Copyright Act, 1911. The Copyright Ordinance, 1962 replaced the earlier Copyright Act of 1914. However, in order to extend the scope of protection to new material and to ensure stringent enforcement of copyright, the Copyright Ordinance, 1962 was amended by the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2000 substituted and added the details about the computer program and equipment’s in section 66E and section 2.p and 2q. In Pakistan, registering a work with the Registrar of Copyrights is not a requirement for obtaining copyright protection. Rather, copyright protection vests with the original creator as soon as the work is created and recorded in a material form. But the benefit of registration is that the in case of registered copy rights the case can be filed before the Intellectual property tribunals. There are multiple cases and situations where the copy rights of the creatures like photographs, computer programs has been infringed despite the creatures has not been compensated accordingly and but on another side the law on copy right in India developed then Pakistan and the rights of the creatures are well protected there . the Indian courts and legislatures has adopted the law of the united states and England the law of the England is also adopted by the Pakistan too .
The Pakistani courts has held In the Messers Ferozesons Pvt. Ltd. v. Dr. Col. Retd. K.U. Kureshi and others {2003 C L D 1052(Lahore)} it is held that failure to register the copyright does not invalidate or impair the copyright. Nor does it destroy the right to sue for copyright infringement. The court further emphasized , however, that while registration of copyright is not required, it does provide for prima facie evidence of authorship and that copyright subsists in the work, in case of any dispute. its is pertinent to mention here that no copyright accrued on the idea only . instead , the copy rights always accrued in the expression of the idea. In the case of Independent Media v. Ali Saleem and Anr. {2006 C L D 97 (Karachi)}, the Court cited that copyright does not protect an idea but only the expression of an idea.
There are multiple judgments given by the Indian courts which also ensures that the copy rights always be on expression but not only on idea. One of the well-known case is anil guptas case it was held that the copy rights will be on expressions but not on idea.
But the concept of the software has not been found anywhere in Pakistani legal system..
The copy rights are one of the important rights in modern computer world especially for the sotware owners and the photographers and other peoples . For further assistance about the copy rights cases and laws in Pakistan contact us.