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CHAPTER XII CIVIL REMEDIES

Section 57: Author’s special rights

The Copyright Act, 1957

1[(1) Independently of the author’s copyright and even after the assignment either wholly or partially of the said copyright, the author of a work shall have the right—

(a) to claim authorship of the work; and

(b) to restrain or claim damages in respect of any distortion, mutilation, modification or other act in relation to the said work 2*** if such distortion, mutilation, modification or other act would be prejudicial to his honour or reputation:

Provided that the author shall not have any right to restrain or claim damages in respect of any adaptation of a computer programme to which clause (aa) of sub-section (1) of section 52 applies.

Explanation.—Failure to display a work or to display it to the satisfaction of the author shall not be deemed to be an infringement of the rights conferred by this section.]

(2) The right conferred upon an author of a work by sub-section (1), 3***, may be exercised by the legal representatives of the author.

Footnotes in the official text

  1. 1.Subs. by Act 38 of 1994, s. 20, for sub-section (1) (w.e.f. 10-5-1995).
  2. 2.The words “which is done before the expiration of the term of copyright” omitted by Act 27 of 2012, s. 36 (w.e.f. 21-6-2012).
  3. 3.The words “other than the right to claim authorship of the work” omitted by s. 36, ibid. (w.e.f. 21-6-2012).

Questions on this section

1 question in 2 of our papers cite Section 57. Try these from the free papers:

  1. 1. Consider the following statements about the author's special rights under Section 57 of the Copyright Act, 1957: 1. The author can claim authorship of the work even after assigning the copyright in it wholly. 2. Failure to display a work, or to display it to the satisfaction of the author, is an infringement of these rights. 3. These rights may be exercised by the legal representatives of the author. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

Practise questions on Intellectual Property Law