The defendant must account for each copy

Copyrights is the exclusive liberty of printing or otherwise multiplying copies of any literary, dramatic, musical, artistic work. This right exists under copyright Act. The copyright in every book published in the life time of the author endures for the natural life of such author and a period of fifty years after his death with certain reservations. For an intellectual work to be capable of protection of copyright, it is necessary:

• It must be innocent that is, there is, there can be no copy right in any work of an irreligious, immoral, libelous or obscene character.

• It must be of value. The object of the law is to protect “a useful book “there is no copyright of an idea.

• It must be original. A very small degree of originality is sufficient to constitute a person as author.

The plaintiff must make out his title to the copyright and must prove that there has been an infringement on the copyright. A person who commits a literary larceny may be proceeded against by a civil action of criminal proceeding. 

The defendant must account for each copy of his work sold as if it had been the plaintiff’s and pay the amount of profit which would have resulted from the sale of so many copies of the plaintiff’s work. The plaintiff has right to recover the possession of the infringing copies unsold and the price of the copies sold.