Ingredients Of Copyright Infringement Not Made Out: Kerala High Court Sets Aside Conviction Of Man Allegedly Selling Fake Cassettes On Footpath

The police had seized 38 cassettes from the revision petitioner. He was convicted under Sections 51(a) and 52A r/w 63 of the Copyright Act by the Magistrate Court, upheld by the Sessions Court.

Section 51 relates to copyrights infringement. Justice K. Babu noted that the prosecution has not verified the contents of the cassettes seized. They did not ascertain who the copyright holder was or whether the copyright holder has retained any exclusive right or whether any license has been granted.

As per Section 52A of the Act, a publisher of the sound recording has to display the name and details of the person who made the sound recording, the copyright owner and the year of its first publication. The court noted that the prosecution has no case that the seized cassettes contained any sound recording and the particular required under Section 52A was not displayed.

The Court reversed the conviction noting that conviction without establishing necessary ingredients of the offence is unreasonable.

Counsel for Petitioners: Advocates K. K. Balakrishnan Kodiyura, Prajit Ratnakaran, E. Mohammed Shafi, Krishnapriya R.

Counsel for Respondents: Public Prosecutor Adv. G. Sudheer

Case No: Crl. Rev. Pet 866 of 2022

Case Title: O. P. Ashraf v The State of Kerala and Others

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Ker) 648