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1978 (8) TMI 231

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..... the High Court as also the District Judge negatived the plaintiff's claim and prima facie the appeal appears to be concluded by finding of fact, but it was rightly argued by Mr. Andley appearing for the appellant that the principles of violation of copyright in the instant appeal have to be applied on the facts found and the inferences from proved facts drawn by the High Court which is doubtless a question of law and more particularly as there is no clear authority of this Court on the subject, we should be persuaded to go into this question without entering into findings of facts. Having heard counsel for the parties, we felt that as the case is one of first impression and needs to be decided by this Court, we should enter into the merits on the basis of the facts found and inferences drawn by the High Court and the District Judge. It is true that both the District Judge and the High Court have relied upon some well-established principles to determine whether or not in a particular case a violation of copyright has taken place, but learned Counsel for the appellant has challenged the validity of the principles by the High Court. 3. The plaintiff is an architect by professio .....

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..... fter the plaintiff heard nothing from the defendant. Sometime in May, 1955 the second defendant announced the production of a motion picture entitled 'New Delhi'. One Mr. Thapa who was one of the artists in the play produced by the plaintiff happened to be in Bombay at the time when the picture 'New Delhi' was being produced by the defendant and informed the plaintiff that the picture being produced by the defendant was really based on the plaintiff play 'Hum Hindustani'. The plaintiff thereupon by his letter dated May 30, 1955 wrote to the second defendant expressing serious concern over the adaptation of his play into a motion picture called 'New Delhi'. The defendant, however, by his letter dated June 9, 1955 informed the plaintiff that his doubts were without any foundation and assured the plaintiff that the story treatment, dramatic construction, characters etc. were quite different and bore not the remotest connection or resemblance with the play written by the plaintiff. 6. The picture released in Delhi in September, 1956 and the plaintiff read some comments in the papers which gave the impression that the picture was very much like the pla .....

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..... cial motion picture. The defendants denied the allegation of the plaintiff that it was after hearing the play written by the plaintiff that the defendants decided to make a film based on the play and entitled it as 'New Delhi'. 9. The defendant thus submitted that there could be no copyright so far as the subject of provincialism is concerned which can be used or adopted by anybody in his own way. He further averred that the motion picture was quite different from the play 'Hum Hindustani' both in content, spirit and climax. The mere act that there were some similarities between the film and the play could be explained by the fact that the idea, viz, provincialism was the common source of the play as also of the film. The defendant thus denied that there was any violation of the copyright. 10. On the basis of the pleadings of the parties, the learned trial Judge framed the following issues 1. Is the plaintiff owner of the copyright in the play 'Hum Hindustani' ? 2. Is the film 'New Delhi' an infringement of the plaintiff's copyright in the play 'Hum Hindustani' ? 3. Have defendants or any of them infringed the plaintiff' .....

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..... in the absence of any law by our Parliament relied on the old law passed by the British Parliament, namely, the Copyright Act of 1911. Section I sub-section (2)(d) defines 'copyright' thus (2) For the purposes of this Act, 'copyright' means the sole right to produce or reproduce the work or any substantial part thereof in any material from whatsoever, to perform, or in the case of a lecture to deliver, the work or any substantial part thereof in public, if the work is unpublished, to publish the work or any substantial part thereof; and shall include the sole right, (d) in the case of a literary, dramatic or musical work, to make any record, perforated roll, cinematograph film, or other contrivance by means of which the work may be mechanically performed or delivered. Section 2 provides the contingencies where a copyright could be infringed and runs thus 2(1) Copyright in a work shall be deemed to be infringed by any person who, without the content of the owner of the copyright, does anything the sole right to do which is by this Act conferred on the owner of the copyright. It is, therefore, clear that the Act 1911 defines 'copyright' and als .....

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..... d is not original thought or information, but the original expression of thought or information in some concrete form. Consequently, it is only an infringement if the defendant has made an unlawful use of the form in which the thought or information is expressed. The defendant must, to be liable, have made a substantial use of this form; he is not liable if he has taken from the work the essential ideas, however original, and expressed the idea in his own form, or used the idea for his own purposes. The author also points out that there is no infringement unless the plaintiff's play-wrighted work has been actually used, so that it may be said that the latter work reproduces the earlier one. In this connection, the author observes as follows A further essential matter, and one which rather strangely is not anywhere precisely stated in the Act of 1956 is that there can be no infringement unless use has been made, directly, or indirectly of the plaintiff's work. 15. Moreover, it seems to us that the fundamental idea of violation of copyright or imitation is the violation of the Eighth Commandment Thou shall not steal which forms the moral basis of the protective pro .....

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..... uthors portray in literary or dramatic form the same occurrence, involving people reacting to the same emotions under the influence of an environment constructed of the same materials, similarities in incidental details necessary to the environment or setting are inevitable; but unless they are accompanied by similarities in the dramatic development of the plot or in the lines or action of the principal characters, they do not constitute evidence of copying. They are comparable to similarities in two works of art made by different artists from the same original subject, and in the usual case are too trivial and unimportant to amount to a substantial appropriation of copyrighted material. The author further says that unless there is any substantial identity between the respective works in the scenes, incidents and treatment a case of infringement of copyright is not made and observes thus But since there was no substantial identity between the respective works in the scenes, incidents, or treatment of the common theme, the court held that the plaintiff's copyrights were not infringed by the defendant's photoplays. Dealing with the infringement of copyright of a play .....

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..... U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Bobbs-Merrill Company v. Isidor Straus and Nathan Straus. (210 US 339 52 L Ed 1086 (1907)) 18. In the American Jurisprudence also it is pointed out that the law does not recognize property rights in abstract ideas, nor is an idea protected by a copyright and it becomes a copyrighted work only when the idea is given embodiment in a tangible form. In this connection the following observations are made Generally speaking, the law does not recognize property rights in abstract ideas and does not accord the author or proprietor, the protection, of his ideas, which the law does not accord to the proprietor of personal property. In cases involving motion pictures or radio or television broadcasts, it is frequently stated that an idea is not protected by a copyright or under the common law, or that there is no property right in an idea, apart from the manner in which it is expressed. When an idea is given embodiment in a tangible form, it becomes the subject of common-law property rights which are protected by the courts, at least when it can be said to be novel and new. It was also pointed out in this book as to what constitutes colourable .....

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..... ticle of fabulous value, does not indicate infringement. 19. We shall now discuss some of the authorities that have been cited at the Bar as also some others with whom we have come across and which throw a flood of light on the point in issue. Dealing with the question of similarities Lord Kekewich, J. in Hanfstaengl case (supra) described various qualities of a copy and observed as follows In West v. Francis ((1822) 5B Ald. 737, 743 106 ER 1361) Bayley J. uses language coming, as Lord Watson says, nearer to a definition than anything which is to be found in the books. It runs thus A copy is that which comes so near to the original as to give to every person seeing it the idea created by the original.... If it were altered thus - a copy is that which comes so near to the original as to suggest that original to the mind of every person seeing it - the substance of the definition would be preserved and Lord Watson's criticism would be avoided. The learned Judge aptly pointed out that an imitation will be a copy which comes so near to the original as to suggest the original to the mind of every person seeing it. In other words, if after having seen the picture a pe .....

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..... the sketch and the novel, the case is essentially one in which the proof is cumulative. I am irresistibly forced to the conclusion that it is quite impossible they should be due to mere chance coincidence and accordingly that they must be due to a process of copying or appropriation by the defendant from the plaintiff's novel. Thus it was pointed out in this case where the aggregate of the similarities between the copyrighted work and the copy lead to the cumulative effect that the defendant had imitated the original and that the similarities between the two works are not coincidental, a reasonable inference of colourable imitation or of appropriation of the labour of the owner of the copyright by the defendant is proved. This case was followed by the Master of Rolls in the case of Corelli v. Gray ((1914) 30 TLR 116). 22. The case of Hawkes and Son (London) Limited v. Paramount Film Service Limited ((1934) 1 Ch 593 151 LT 294) was whether a musical composition made by the owner was sought to be imitated by producing a film containing the said composition. An action for violation of the copyright was filed by the owner. Lord Hanworth, M.R. found that the quantum taken was .....

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..... significance that apart from the burial of Captain Nolan the play ends with the very quotation which Mrs. Woodham-Smith used to end her description of the battle.... As Sir Andrew Clark points out, some of these might well be accounted for as being similar to other events already in the script, and in any event abridgment was necessary, but that may not be a complete answer. 24. Similarly in the case of Donoghue v. Allied Newspapers Ltd. ((1937) 3 All ER 503 157 LT 186) it was pointed out that there was no copyright in an idea and in this connection Farwell, J. observed as follows This, at any rate, is clear, and one can start with this beyond all question that there is no copyright in an idea, or in ideas..... If the idea, however brilliant and however clever it may be, is nothing more than an idea, and is not put into any form of words, or any form of expression such as a picture or a play, then there is no such thing as copyright at all. It is not until it is (if I may put it in that way) reduced into writing, or into some tangible form, that you get any right to copyright at all, and the copyright exists in the particular form of language in which, or, in the case of a p .....

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..... should be dismissed, and dismissed with costs. 28. In the case of Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corporation (81 F 2d 49 (1793)) Judge Learned Hand while considering a case which is very similar to the case in this appeal observed as follows But it is convenient to define such a use by saying that other may copy the theme or ideas , or the like, of a work, though not its expression . At any rate so long as it is clear what is meant, no harm is done.... Finally, in concluding as we do that the defendants used the play pro tanto, we need not charge their witnesses with perjury. With so many sources before them they might quite honestly forget what they took; nobody knows the origin of his inventions; memory and fancy merge even in adults. Yet unconscious plagiarism is actionable quite as much as deliberate. The play is the sequence of the confluents of all these means, bound together in an inseparable unity; it may often be most effectively pirated by leaving out the speech, for which a substitute can be found, which keeps the whole dramatic meaning. That as it appears to us is exactly what the defendants have done here; the dramatic significance of the scenes we h .....

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..... ng in appellee's motion picture is not in conformity with the test used in infringement cases and to which we have referred to above. We find no merit in the contention that any of the songs in defendants' movie were taken from plaintiff's manuscripts.... Considering that both the movie and the manuscript presented activities of Harvey Girls, and information concerning them was received from the same source, we think it reasonable that some similarities in character portrayal could be discovered. 31. In view of the aforesaid observation too much stress cannot always be laid on similarities or similar situation. A writ of certiorari against the judgment of U.S. Courts Appeal to U.S. Supreme Court was taken but the certiorari was denied and the petition was rejected in limine as it appears from 348 U.S. 843. This was also a case where a film was made on the basis of a play claimed to have been written by the plaintiff. 32. The case of Warner Bros. Pictures v. Columbia Broadcasting System (216 F 2d 945 (1928)) is another illustration of the manner in which a copyright can be violated. Dealing with this aspect of the matter Stephens, J. observed as follows It is ou .....

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..... h meticulous scrutiny, but by the observations and impressions of the average reasonable reader and spectator.... We find and conclude, as did not court below, that the numerous striking similarities in the two works cannot in the light of all the evidence be said to constitute mere chance. The deduction of material and substantial unlawful copying of appellee's original play in appellant's motion picture is more in consonance with the record and with the probabilities of the situation therein disclosed. This authority lays down in unmistakable terms the cases where an infringement of the copyright would take place and as pointed out that before the charge of plagiarism is levelled against the defendant it must be shown that the defendant has taken a substantial portion of the matter from the original and have made unfair use of the protective work. The two works involved must be considered and tested not hypercritically but with meticulous scrutiny. 35. Similarly, in the case of Oliver Wendell Holmes v. George D. Hurst (174 US 82 43 L Ed 904 (1898)) Justice Brown speaking for the Court and describing the incidents of a violation of the copyright observed as follows .....

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..... ne picture can be said to be a copy another picture only if a substantial part of the former picture finds place in the reproduction. 39. To the same effect is an earlier decision of the Division Bench of the Madras High Court in the case of The Daily Calendar Supplying Bureau, Sivakasi v. The United Concern (AIR 1967 Mad 381) where the Court observed as follows What is essential is to see whether there is a reproduction of substantial part of the picture. There can be no test to decide what a substantial part of a picture is. One useful test, which has been followed in several decisions of Courts, is the one laid down by Lord Herschel, L.C. in Hanfstaengl v. Bains Co. (1895 AC 20, 25) .... it depends really, on the effect produced upon the mind by a study of the picture and of that which is alleged to be a copy of it, or at least of its design. 40. In the case of C. Cunniah and Co. v. Balraj Co. (AIR 1961 Mad 111) the Court applying the test of resemblance observed as follows Applying this test, the degree of resemblance between the two pictures, which is to be judged by the eye, must be such that the person looking at the respondents' picture must get the s .....

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..... be a question of fact. Similarity is a great point to be considered in this connection but mere similarity is not enough as it may be due to any one of four hypotheses as Copinger points out at p. 134, Edn. 6, viz., (1) to mere chance (2) to both works being taken from a common source (3), to plaintiff's work being taken from the defendant's and (4) defendant's work being taken from the plaintiff's and each case must depend upon its own circumstances. Guha, J. observed as follows It has to be determined whether in a particular case the work is a legitimate use of another man's publication in the fair exercise of a mental operation deserving the character of original work. 45. Thus, the position appears to be that an idea, principle, theme, or subject matter or historical or legendary facts being common property cannot be the subject matter of copyright of a particular person. It is always open to any person to choose an idea as a subject matter and develop it in his own manner and give expression to the idea by treating it differently from others. Where two writers write on the same subject similarities are bound to occur because the central idea of bot .....

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..... and violation of the copyright in such cases is confined to the form, manner and arrangement and expression of the idea by the author of the copyrighted work. 2. Where the same idea is being developed in a different manner, it is manifest that the source being common, similarities are bound to occur. In such a case the courts should determine whether or not the similarities are on fundamental or substantial aspects of the mode of expression adopted in the copyrighted work. If the defendant's work is nothing but a literal imitation of the copyrighted work with some variations here and there it would amount to violation of the copyright. In other words, in order to be actionable the copy must be a substantial and material one which at once leads to the conclusion that the defendant is guilty of an act of piracy. 3. One of the surest and the safest test to determine whether or not there has been a violation of copyright is to see if the reader, spectator or the viewer after having read or seen both the works is clearly of the opinion and gets an unmistakable impression that the subsequent work appears to be a copy of the original. 4. Where the theme is the same but is pre .....

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..... . P. 1 has been placed before us and we have gone through the same. 49. The main theme of the play is provincialism and the prejudice of persons belonging to one State against persons belonging to other States. In the play however the author chooses two families, viz., a Punjabi family and a Madrasi family to show what havoc can be caused by provincial parochialism possessed by the two families. The Punjabi family and the Madrasi family were living as close neighbours having good and cordial relations and are on visiting terms with each other. The Punjabi consists of Dewan Chand, contractor, his wife Krishna, their grown up daughter Chander and son Tinnu, aged about 8 or 10 years. The Madrasi family however consists of Subramaniam, a Government official, his wife Minakshi and grown up son Amni and daughter Pitto who is aged about 8 or 10 years. As a result of the close association between the two families it appears that Amni the son of Subramaniam falls in love with Chander the daughter of Dewan Chand of the Punjabi family. When the parents are out Amni and Chander meet and talk. Unfortunately, however, the parents of both Amni and Chander are extremely adverse to the matrimoni .....

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..... ilies that provincialism helps nobody. This in short is the story of the play written by the appellant. 50. We might mention the before the play starts the author shows some voices reciting various persons proclaiming that they come from different States like the slogan that they belong to a particular State rather than that they belong to India. 51. Analysing therefore the essential features of the play the position is as follows 1. That the central idea of the play is based on provincialism and parochialism. 2. The evils of provincialism are illustrated by the cordial relations of the two families being marred because of an apprehended marriage time which according to both the families was not possible where they belonged to different States. 3. That the Madrasi boy Amni is a coward and in spite of his profound love for Chander he does not muster sufficient courage to talk the matter out with his parents. 4. That in sheer desperation while the parents of the families are trying to arrange a match for the couple belonging to the same State Amni and Chander enter into a suicidal pact and write letters to their parents intimating their intention. .....

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..... nd and suggests to him that he should attire as a South Indian and then go to any South Indian landlord to get the house. Thereafter Anand disguised as a South Indian approaches one Iyer for giving him accommodation and Iyer is only too glad to accommodate Anand on the ground that Anand is also a South Indian. Anand then meets Subramaniam, father of Janki, the girl with whom he had an altercation at the station. The film then proceeds involving several sequences of the meeting between Anand and Janki. Murli Dhar, the Principal of a Dancing School takes Anand as his student and there he is introduced to Janki who is a Professor of Dance and Music in that Institute. Janki then discovers that Anand is a good singer and is slowly and gradually attracted towards him. Janki invites him to her house for the celebration of Pongal festival and Anand goes there as usual attired as South Indian and witnesses the dance performance of Janki. He also comes to know that Janki's father Subramaniam does not hold any good opinion about Punjabis. Thereafter Anand leaves the place after making on appointment with Janki to meet near Rashtrapati Bhawan the following day. When Anand returns to his ho .....

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..... her Janki nor her father Subramaniam had ever known the real identity of Anand but both of them had taken him to be a South Indian. We might like to add that here the picture makes a completely new departure from the story contained in the play where both the parents of the couple knew the identity of each other. Before the performance starts Anand tries to disclose his identity to Janki but is unable to do so because Janki is in a hurry. The performance is applauded by the audience which includes Subramaniam, Daulat Ram and Kumarswamy. In the theatre hall where the performance is staged Kumarswamy is given a prominent place as he is taken to be the father of Anand. Daulat Ram resents this fact because Kumarswamy was his servant. After the performance Murli Dhar introduces Subramaniam, Janki's father to the audience. Murli Dhar then calls Kumarswamy and introduces him to the audience as the father of Anand. This infuriates Daulat Ram who comes to the stage and gives a thrashing to Kumarswamy. It is at this stage that the entire truth is revealed and both Subramaniam and Janki come to know that Anand was not a South Indian but a Punjabi and his father was Daulat Ram. Daulat Ram .....

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..... hu Ram requests Daulat Ram that Mohini who is none other than Janki should also be married to Anand. Sadhu Ram discloses the true identity of Janki and then Daulat Ram realises his shortsightedness and welcomes the idea of the marriage of Anand with Janki. Subramaniam who is present there feels extremely happy and blesses the proposed marriage. Ashok and Nikki as also Anand as also Anand and Janki are then married and thus the film ends. 54. Analysing the story of the film it would appear that it portrays three main themes (1) Two aspects of provincialism viz. the role of provincialism in regard to marriage and in regard to renting out accommodation (2) evils of caste-ridden society, and (3) the evils of dowry. So far as the last two aspects are concerned they do not figure at all in the play written by the plaintiff/appellant. A close perusal of the script of the film clearly shows that all the three aspects mentioned above are integral parts of the story and it is very difficult to divorce one from the other without affecting the beauty and the continuity of the script of the film. Further, it would appear that the treatment of the story of the film is in many respects differe .....

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..... mebody the girl is listening to the dialogue from behind a curtain. Thereafter the girl runs to the boy and explains the situation to him. (xiii) In both the said play and the said film, the girl writes a letter of suicide. (xiv) In the said play reconciliation takes place when the children of the two families, who were in love, go out to commit suicide by drowning etc., whereas in the said film, it is only the daughter who goes out to commit suicide by drowning herself in the Jamuna. (xv) In the said play the children are stopped from committing suicide by an Astrologer whereas in the said film the girl is stopped from committing suicide by a friend of the family. (xvi) In the said play reconciliation between the two families takes place only after they have experienced the shock of their children committing suicide on account of their provincial feelings whereas in the film, the father of the girl realised his mistake after experiencing the shock of his daughter committing suicide. (xvii) In both the said play and the said film, stress is laid on the fact that although India is one country. yet there is acute feeling of provincialism between persons haili .....

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..... ner or form quite different from that adopted in the play. (iii) In the film there is no suicidal pact between the lovers but only a suicide note is left by Janki whereas in the play both the lovers decide to end their lives and enter into a suicidal pact and leave suicide note to this effect. Furthermore, while in the play Amni and Chander get married and then appear before the parents, in the picture the story takes a completely different turn with the intervention of Sadhu Ram who does not allow Janki to commit suicide but keeps her with him disguised as his niece and the final climax is reached in the last scene when Janki's real identity is disclosed and Subramaniam also finds out that his daughter is alive. (iv) The story in the play revolves around only two families, namely, the Punjabi and the Madrasi families, but in the film there are three important families, namely, the Punjabi family, the Madrasi family and the Bengali family and very great stress is laid down in the film on the role played by Ashok Banerjee of the Bengali family who makes a supreme sacrifice at the end which turns the tide and brings about a complete revolution in the mind and ideology o .....

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..... the play and it was on the basis of this play that he decided to make the film. However, there is no reliable evidence to show that defendant 2 at any time expressed his intention to film the play written by the plaintiff. There can be no doubt that defendant 2 was aware of the story contained in the play and a part of the film was undoubtedly to some extent inspired by the play written by the plaintiff. But the definite case of defendant 2 also is that he was in search of a story based on provincialism and the play written by the plaintiff may have provided the opportunity for defendant 2 to produce his film though with a different story, different theme, different characterisation and different climaxes. 61. Thus, applying the principles enunciated above and the various tests laid down to determine whether in a particular case there has been a violation of the copyright we are of the opinion that the film produced by the defendants cannot be said to be a substantial or material copy of the play written by the plaintiff. We also find that the treatment of the film and the manner of its presentation on the screen is quit different from the one written by the plaintiff at the sta .....

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..... dants themselves. On a careful comparison of the script of the plaintiff's copyrighted play with the aforesaid film, although one does not fail to discern a few resemblances and similarities between the play and the film, the said resemblances are not material or substantial and the degree of similarities is not such as to lead one to think that the film taken as a whole constitutes an unfair appropriation of the plaintiff's copyrighted work. In fact, a large majority of material incidents, episodes and situations portrayed by defendants 1 and 2 in their aforesaid film are substantially different from the plaintiff's protected work and the two social evils viz. caste system and dowry system sought to be exposed and eradicated by defendants 1 and 2 by means of their aforesaid film do not figure at all in the plaintiffs play. As such I am in complete agreement with the conclusions arrived at by my learned brother Murtaza Fazal Ali that there has been no breach on the part of the defendants of the plaintiffs copyright and concur with the judgment proposed to be delivered by him. PATHAK, J. (concurring). - It appears from a comparison of the script of the stage play Hum .....

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..... field than the area included within the scope of the earlier product, and in the common area covered by the two productions to introduce changes in order to disguise the attempt at plagiarism. If a reappraisal of the facts in the present case had been open in this Court, I am not sure that I would not have differed from the view taken on the facts by the High Court, but as the matter stands, the trial Court as well as the High Court have concurred in the finding that such similarities as exist between the stage play Hum Hindustani and the film New Delhi do not make out a case infringement. The dissimilarities, in their opinion, are so material that it is not possible to say that the appellant's copyright has been infringed. This court is extremely reluctant to interfere with concurrent findings of fact reached by the courts below and for that reason I would allow the judgment under appeal to stand. In another, and perhaps a clearer case, it may be necessary for this court to interfere and remove the impression which may have gained ground that the copyright belonging to an author can be readily infringed by making immaterial changes, introducing insubstantial differences a .....

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