DU Photocopiers: Neeraj Kishan Kaul, Anup Bhambhani argue for students, academicians

In a case that could well result in a landmark judgment on copyright infringement, the Delhi High Court’s Pradeep Nandrajog and Yogesh Khanna JJ. today heard arguments from Senior Counsels Neeraj Kishan Kaul and Anup Bhambhani..The senior counsels were representing the Society for Promoting Educational Access and Knowledge (SPEAK) and the Association of Students for Equitable Access to Knowledge (ASEAK) respectively..The appeal has been filed against Justice Endlaw’s dismissal of the copyright infringement suit filed by a consortium of international publishers..Kaul began the arguments by talking about the object of the course pack stating that it was “focused material intelligently designed for maximum educational value” and it was intended to expose students to a variety of reading and perspectives..He argued that these course packs of copyrighted material belonging to someone else, were brought together to make education as fruitful and productive for students as possible, keeping Indian conditions in mind where time, cost and numbers become an issue..He further argued that the target audience of the course packs was very limited and did not commercially compete with the publishers in any way..“Normally the extracted portions do not form the dominant portion of the book. The students would not probably buy these books anyway even if they did not have access to these course packs. The socio-economic conditions in India do not permit it. It is possible to buy one or two books. You can’t expect every student to buy different books for every chapter.”.Kaul argued that the appellants had known about the alleged infringement for a long time and that it was a clear case of acquiescence and waiver. The publishers were in Delhi since 2000 and had visited the photocopy shop back in 2012 but only started vigorously pursuing litigations in 2013. He stated that the appellants had waived their rights, if any existed..Following this, Bhambhani argued on behalf of DU students through ASEAK..He stated that there was a larger idea of growth and development of knowledge and not merely earning a degree for these students..He further argued that these course packs include prescribed readings which continually change with change in course, time and syllabus..Bhambhani also stated that these readings that formed the course-packs were on different topics that deal with different parts of the syllabus and would appear random to an outsider, who is not a student prescribed to study these. Therefore, there was no incentive for an outsider to buy the course-packs..On the issue of commercial gains, the senior counsel said that in accordance with the agreement signed between the photocopier and the Delhi School of Economics, the photocopier charges a standard rate of 40 paise per page, irrespective of whether or not those pages form the course packs..Therefore, except for a few bulk orders, there was no commercial profit made by the photocopiers..The matter has now been adjourned to December 5, when the counsel for Delhi University will make his arguments.