{"id":125373,"date":"2026-09-21T11:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T05:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=125373"},"modified":"2026-09-21T11:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T05:38:13","slug":"india-eu-fta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/india-eu-fta\/","title":{"rendered":"India-EU FTA: Copyright Rules and India&#8217;s Digital Sovereignty"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>India-EU FTA Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The European Commission has formally asked EU member states to approve the signing and conclusion of the <\/span><b>India-EU Free Trade Agreement<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Details of the commitments in covered areas, including intellectual property, are now public.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The draft IP Chapter carries detailed copyright provisions. Experts argue that these provisions could force amendments to India&#8217;s Copyright Act, 1957, and weaken exceptions that students, researchers, archivists and internet service providers currently rely on.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>The Structural Asymmetry<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India&#8217;s Copyright Act conforms to international IP treaties, including the <\/span><b>WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the <\/span><b>TRIPS Agreement<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The draft chapter affirms both parties&#8217; commitment to these treaties. But it does something curious.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It <\/span><b>omits <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the WCT from the National Treatment clause (Article 10.8<\/span><b>)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, while retaining the WCT&#8217;s enforcement mandates.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Why This Matters<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The WCT was adopted specifically to protect works in the <\/span><b>digital environment<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, particularly software and databases.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It also provides for <\/span><b>Technological Protection Measures (TPMs)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Crucially, its <\/span><b>Article 10<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> permits limitations and exceptions to copyright for digital works.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Excluding the WCT from National Treatment means these flexibilities would no longer be available to India.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Footnote 1 of Article 10.8(1)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> deepens the problem. It expands &#8220;protection&#8221; to cover enforcement against circumvention of TPMs (Article 10.18) and Rights Management Information (Article 10.19).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The result is an imbalance. The treaty&#8217;s <\/span><b>enforcement obligations are binding<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">; its <\/span><b>public-interest exceptions are excluded<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The WCT&#8217;s core principle \u2014 balancing authors&#8217; rights against public interest in education and research \u2014 is abandoned, leaving only a rigid enforcement mandate.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>The Narrow Three-Step Test<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Article 10.21 of the FTA introduces a narrow <\/span><b>&#8220;three-step test<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8221; for limitations and exceptions, borrowed from EU copyright statutes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If India&#8217;s existing exceptions are not expressly preserved, foreign rightsholders could challenge the fair dealing provisions under Section 52 of the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/copyright-act-1957\/\" target=\"_blank\">Copyright Act<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This includes transient or incidental storage of a work purely in the technical process of electronic transmission.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under Article 10.11 of the FTA, such acts could attract civil and criminal remedies.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Threat to Section 65A<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The imbalance directly threatens <\/span><b>Section 65A of the Copyright Act<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which governs TPMs.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Section 65A(2) provides exceptions permitting circumvention of digital locks for specified lawful purposes.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because of this, a student or researcher who bypasses a lock to perform an act protected under Section 52 attracts no criminal liability today.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A strict anti-circumvention regime under the FTA would erode this safeguard.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Chilling Effect on Classrooms and Labs<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Indian law today lets students and researchers open up software to test compatibility or find security flaws.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Librarians may copy digital works to preserve old books. Strict anti-circumvention rules would make both illegal.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paywalls and Digital Rights Management (DRM) would then override public-interest protections that Indian courts secured, most famously in the <\/span><b>DU Photocopy Case<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The DU Photocopy Case was a landmark intellectual property lawsuit in India where top publishers sued a Delhi University photocopy kiosk for copyright infringement.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2016, the Delhi High Court ruled that making educational coursepacks is legal under fair use.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Threat to Internet Service Providers<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India currently shields intermediaries from liability for the temporary, transient copies created in RAM and server caches during routine data routing.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This protection flows from Sections 52(1)(b) and (c).\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The notice-and-takedown regime under Rule 75 of the Copyright Rules, 2013 rests on these statutory safe harbours.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The draft text undermines this. Article 10.11(a) grants rightsholders an exclusive, unqualified right over all &#8220;temporary or permanent&#8221; reproductions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This contradicts the Agreed Statements to Articles 8 and 10 of the WCT, which exempt transient network copies from liability.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the WCT excluded from the National Treatment exception, Indian ISPs could face systemic liability from EU rightsholders.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Beyond Parliament&#8217;s Mandate<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Analysts contend that by accepting the draft text, negotiators appear to have gone beyond the mandate of Parliament, as reflected in the Copyright Act, 1957.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If uncorrected, Parliament would be obliged to delete digital-work exceptions from the Act \u2014 even where the user was engaged in legitimate, lawful research.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Negotiators must press to re-insert the WCT into the National Treatment clause and preserve India&#8217;s statutory copyright flexibilities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The underlying argument is that India&#8217;s rise as a digital power rests on open access to knowledge, robust educational inquiry and independent technical research.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Deepening trade ties with the EU is important, but not at the cost of digital sovereignty.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Conclusion<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The dispute is not about protecting creators. It is about who decides the balance between protection and access.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A treaty that imports enforcement while leaving exceptions behind is not balanced law. India must negotiate flexibilities in, not trade them away.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/business\/india-eu-fta-moves-one-step-closer-to-reality-as-european-commission-moves-to-get-it-signed\/article71455937.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India-EU FTA copyright provisions could affect India&#8217;s digital sovereignty, fair dealing, educational access, research, DRM safeguards and intermediary protections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":124390,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[10374,60,22,59],"class_list":["post-125373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","tag-ai-safety-concerns","tag-mains-articles","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-mains-current-affairs","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125373"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125391,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125373\/revisions\/125391"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}