Under Section 52(1)(a) of the Copyright Act, 1957, the doctrine of "Fair Dealing" permits use of a copyrighted work without the author's permission for which of the following purposes?

Solution

Section 52(1)(a) of the Copyright Act, 1957 enumerates specific acts that do not constitute infringement of copyright under the principle of fair dealing. The three core purposes recognised under Section 52(1)(a) are: (i) private or personal use including research; (ii) criticism or review, whether of that work or any other work; and (iii) reporting of current events and current affairs, including reporting of lectures delivered in public. Unlike the broader "fair use" doctrine under US copyright law (which involves a four-factor flexible test), the Indian fair dealing provision is purpose-specific and closed-ended a use must fall squarely within one of the enumerated purposes to qualify. The term "fair dealing" is not defined anywhere in the Copyright Act, and courts have looked to factors such as the amount of copying, the nature of the work, and commercial impact for guidance. Landmark Indian cases in this area include The Chancellor, Masters & Scholars of the University of Oxford v. Rameshwari Photocopy Services (2016) (Delhi HC), which examined fair dealing in the context of educational photocopying.