DAMAGES COULD BE AWARDED ON THE THEFT OF LAPTOP UNDER COPY RIGHT ACT, 1957.

[Mr. M. GOVINDARAJAN]

                        Copyright is a form of intellectual property.  It is mostly intangible property but it manifests ultimately in the form of a tangible property.   Every man owns what he creates.  Copyright is a property right that subsists in certain types of works as provided under Section 14 of the Copyrights Act.  It is a right which grants exclusive right to do or authorise others to do certain acts in relation to literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works; cinematographic film and sound recordings.  The copy right law exists to prevent others from taking unfair advantage of a person’s creative efforts. 

                        In this article whether the theft of laptop in which a person puts all his creative works would be eligible for awarding damages under copy right act. 

                        Sec. 2(o) of the Copyright Act (‘Act’ for short) defines ‘literary work’ to include computer programs, tables and compilations including computer literary data bases.  Section 13 of the Act provides that copyright exists in original literary works.  Section 14 provides copy right to computer programmers to reproduce the work in any material form including its storage in any medium by electronic forms, issue of copies of the work to the public not being copies already in circulation, to perform work in public to communicate it to the public, to make any translation or adoption of the work and to sell or to give on commercial rental or offer for sale or for commercial rental any copy of the computer programme.  Section 17 of the Act provides that the author of the work shall be the first owner of the copy right therein.

                        In ‘Shashank Shekar Mishra V. Ajay Gupta’ – (DEL) LW 116.10,2011 the plaintiff owned a laptop and used it exclusively for the purpose of web designing as well as doing and processing various technology related activities on the internet.  The defendant, being known to the plaintiff and user of his web site barged into the room of the plaintiff with 2 anti social elements and snatched away his laptop which contained confidential data and information including sensitive personal data, personally identifiable information, banking and credit card details as well as his 212 ePins.  The respondent threatened the plaintiff that he would make public all photographs, messages etc., to tarnish the reputation of the plaintiff.

                        It is alleged by the plaintiff that the laptop snatched by the respondent contained the following:

• The plaintiff’s templates and designs;
• Word press themes designed in PHP technology;
• Credit card information of his cousin brother;
• His photographs with his friends and colleagues;
• A text and excel file of 212 ePins;
• User names and passwords of 52 extra accounts;
• Username and passwords of the email accounts and other websites;
• User names and passwords of the server and the plaintiff’s 11 websites hosted by the plaintiff;
• Plaintiff’s PHP source codes of computer software;
• Pan card details and ICICI bank account details of his mother;
• Private messages;
• Admin passwords of the websites;

Etc.,

                        The plaintiff sought injunction restraining the defendant infringing his copy right carrying out any business or website containing the copyright material belonging to him and from transferring the copy right material to any other person and also from downloading, extracting, distributing, transmitting, publishing, releasing or disclosing the personal, confidential data and information belonging to him.  He further prayed that his original laptop CDs, inlay cards, hard disks etc., should be handed over to him.  Rendition of accounts has also been sought by the plaintiff amounting to Rs.20,10,000/-.

                        The Court held that the defendant has snatched the laptop of the plaintiff containing the information detailed in his affidavit by way of evidence.  The plaintiff holds copy right in the computer programmes which he claims to have authored and which are stated to have been stored in the software which the defendant snatched from him.  The Court further held that the defendant has no right either to use the computer program authored by the plaintiff himself or to make the work available to any other person whether for consideration or otherwise.  If the defendant uses the work authored by the plaintiff or provides its copies to any person without the licence of the plaintiff, he would be infringing the copy right of the plaintiff in the work authored by him, since the exclusive rights to do such an act is conferred upon the owner of the copy right alone.  The defendant has no legal right to transfer the literary work authored by the plaintiff to be used by any other person either for consideration or otherwise and any such act on his part would amount to infringement of the copy right which the plaintiff holds in the aforesaid work.

                        The Court further held that the privacy of the plaintiff has already been invaded by the defendant snatching the laptop containing the private information as detailed in the affidavit of the plaintiff since the defendant had access to that private information of the plaintiff.   The defendant has no legal right to part with that information to any person and thereby give them an opportunity to invade the privacy of the plaintiff.  The Court held that the plaintiff is entitled to an injunction restraining the defendant from parting with the aforesaid information to any person as also from using in any manner.   The defendant has no legal right to retain the laptop of the plaintiff within him and he is bound to return the same to the plaintiff without destroying or erasing the information stored therein.

                        The Court further held that the plaintiff must have suffered a lot of mental agony and anxiety on amount of theft of computer program authored by him as well as important data which was stored in the laptop.  He would always remain apprehensive and live under a constant fear that the data which he had stored in the laptop may be misused either by the defendant or by any other person who is able to have access to it, causing substantial financial loss to him besides mental trauma, agony and anxiety, which he is beyond to suffer in case that data is used.  The anxiety and mental trauma of the plaintiff on his being deprived of the work authored by him needs to be appreciated by taking into consideration the tremendous effort which he must have made in developing that computer program.    The Court passed a decree for damages amounting to Rs.10 lakhs to the plaintiff.  The plaintiff will also be entitled to pendent lite and future damages @ 6% p.a.onRs.10 lakhs in addition to the proportionate cost of the suit.