Author(s): Kirti Minhas
The India Copyright Registry has consulted stakeholders to revise the copyright regulations in light of the rapid growth the creative industry is witnessing. With the vast growth of technology and its development the boundaries of creation have extended to multiple limits. The Generative Artificial Intelligence creations, Non-Fungible Tokens, Gaming Graphics, etc. challenge the essential tenants of copyright law. Intellectual Property plays a strategic role in the creative industry. Along with the arrival of Digital Copyrights, the main source of communication for entertainment to the public has also become the Overthe-top platforms. Online consumption is at an all-time high, and Indian market is steadily growing. According to Music consumer insight report 2018 and audio OTT economy in India report 2019, 86% of the consumers globally are listening to music through on demand streaming platforms. Indian consumers spend 21 hours per week listening to online streaming music. Subscriptions to OTT platforms offering audio and video content has doubled since 2019. The shift of consumer is due to high internet penetration and increased usage of smartphones. Audiences have migrated to these digital streaming services, the services offer a buffet of entertainment options to the customers and protect the copyright of right holders which was earlier infringed through illegal internet streaming or downloads. Digital copyright subject matters are the main commodity for the OTT- platforms. At the same time the massive shift also raises questions about how digital copyright can be protected on OTT platforms? To answer the question, the author has done a comparative study of Indian copyright law, cyber laws which include the Information Technology Act rules of 2011, 2013 and 2021 and the United States legislations specifically the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The paper is an attempt to deal with the question that how different stakeholders in a creative industry having specific interest will be impacted by digitalization of copyright. The paper in its first part delve into the aspects of digitalization of the copyright subject matter and how the regulatory framework is dealing with the shift of the subject matter. The second part of the paper compares the legislations and provisions in India with that of United States. The author has used descriptive analytical approach in writing this paper, through secondary data. The conclusion shows that the transition to digital copyright is happening at a rapid scale and Indian legislation is to accelerate its protections from conventional objects to different sorts of digital copyright. A sui-generis system can be adopted where cyber laws and copyright laws are combined together for digital protection.