Imagine you worked really hard on creating something for a long time. Just when it was time for you to reap the harvest, earn the reward for all of those long nights and hard work, someone swoops in and takes the credit and gains away from you.

How would you feel? That’s the feeling scores of writers have when their work is copied. Something on which they had been working relentlessly for a number of months or maybe even years. 

Copyright Act was formed to protect the right of an author or artist for their creations; giving exclusive rights to use a specific piece of art only to the owner and people with proper authorization i.e. a copyright license.

But clearly, their rights are being infringed every day. There have been several cases of copyright that we come across every other day.

People copy material off both in the physical world and the digital world, intentionally or unintentionally indulging in copyright infringement. 

One of the major reasons for copyright infringement currently is the ambiguity and lack of awareness among the people about the same.

What constitutes as Copyright Infringement? What is the correct procedure to use a literary or artistic work? Awareness is definitely one of the key areas which needs work so that there are lesser instances of copyright infringement.

If one is using or copying a writer’s work for commercial purposes i.e. making material gains from it, he/she is committing copyright infringement, which has legal repercussions. However, if you get yourself a copyright license issued you are safe from any such mishaps.

You make your gains and the owner of the literary work gets the share that belongs to him. 

How many photocopy shops do you think follow the correct and legal method? The books that they photocopy and sell as notes or say pirated books that you find at one-third their price sitting on a street vendor’s stack, is it legal? Of course not!

This needs to be changed. We need to switch over to the legal and proper method. Copy, but with permission!

Writers create content for us. They feed our imaginations and even our souls. It is only to our benefit that we stimulate such an environment for the writers which is healthy and promotes as well as nurtures better content without any interruptions.

With proper copyright licensing, people besides the owner, who want to use the material for commercial purposes can do that, readers are satisfied and the writers get their well deserved share. A perfect win-win situation for everybody.