Delhi University undertaking to avoid illegal copying paves way to win-win solution

An undertaking by Delhi University not to indulge in future acts of illegal copying has been converted into an injunction by the Delhi High Court to ensure that the University keeps its word. The court also recognised that the making of course packs by the photocopying outlet (Rameshwari Photostat) falls outside a “fair use” defence and so issued a formal injunction against Rameshwari as well.

This opens the way for a win-win resolution of the dispute between the three Academic Publishers – Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Taylor Francis - and Delhi University (see earlier story), which has generated such intense debate in the Indian press. The recognition by the university that its past copying was illegal and its undertaking, backed by an injunction, not to engage in illegal copying in the future means that negotiations can start in earnest with the Indian Reproduction Rights Organisation (IRRO) to license such copying legally and to ensure that the rights of rightholders are respected while the access of students to the texts they need is assured.