Copyright Issues in Cyberspace: Indian Legal Position and Judicial Pronouncement

The protection of copyright in the cyberspace is not as easy as in the physical space, many issues and challenges are there before the statute and the courts of law to give effective protection to the interest of the copyright holder in this new world. The laws when drafted they are not aware about such unique issues and challenges, so laws were not much efficient to restrict the violation in the cyberspace, it also create problem for the court that in the absence of any laws how they can protect the interest of the owner of the copyright. By the time passed the law maker make laws in this regard and addressed the issues w.r.t. violation in cyber world, then court also gave so many decisions which become the land mark and leading one. This paper aims to study the issues and challenges related to the copyright protection in the virtual world as well as the legal frame work and the judicial opinion. The study is limited to the Indian scenario only. The issues like the P2P sharing, online licensing of software, framing, catching, issues of jurisdiction in digital space has been discussed in the paradigm of leading judicial pronouncement and legislative frame work. The paper adopts the doctrinal & analytical method of study to analyze the legislation and the decisions of the courts.