Copyright has always been accommodating technological advancements by express inclusion of the authorsâ right of âdissemination of their worksâ for the enjoyment of public over the new medium both at the international and national level. These technological advancements led to the emergence of the concept of authorsâ right of Radio broadcasting, TV broadcasting, etc., which have been now grouped together under the umbrella of the authorsâ right of âcommunication to the publicâ.
It was the broadcasting industry which at first flourished and consequently paved the way for the expansion of authorsâ right of âcommunication to the publicâ. A socio-economic analysis of the development of broadcasting industry sheds light on the considerable investment required for the dissemination of works through broadcasting and the perils of unauthorized rebroadcasting. Such unauthorized rebroadcasting of content carrying signal of the broadcasting organizations by their competitors in the past created considerable revenue loss not only to broadcasting organizations but also to the authors of the copyright works. The major reason for the unauthorized rebroadcasting of content was the legal lacunae that existed in the authorsâ right of broadcasting, as the same was restricted only to the expression of content and not to the signals generated by the broadcasting organizations. This led to the emergence of the concept of âneighbouring rights protectionâ including that of broadcasting organizations. In order to address the economic interest of broadcasters while generating the signal for disseminating authorsâ works to the public, the concept of âbroadcast reproduction rightâ was conceived and accepted by the Rome Convention in 1961. The same has been recognized with a limited scope in the trips Agreement as well.
Even though the degree of legal protection accorded to the broadcastersâ signal has remained constant, the technical advancements in signal protection i.e., signal encryption techniques have vastly improved in recent years. As a result of these enhanced techniques in encryption for signal protection, there is a need to examine whether the program carrying signal in digital broadcasting still requires any additional legal protection. Moreover in the digital context, it is pertinent to understand the scope and extent of authorsâ right in live streaming and to further examine whether there is any legal lacunae similar to that of unauthorized access of traditional broadcastersâ signal while transmitting the work of authors through âlive streamingâ. This book is an attempt to clear the fog around these questions and to provide a contoured answer to the same in detail among others.