When a film clip on a video site is piracy and when it is not
A film is uploaded to a video-sharing site. One upload is the whole movie, monetised, drawing the audience away from the rightful release. Another is a two-minute extract inside a fifteen-minute review, or a few seconds used to report a news event. Indian copyright law treats these very differently. Section 51 of the Copyright Act, 1957 makes the unlicensed doing of any act reserved to the owner an infringement; Section 52(1) carves out the fair-dealing exceptions — private use, criticism or review, and the reporting of current events — that take a use outside infringement altogether. The line between the two is the whole question. Super Cassettes Industries Ltd v Hamar Television Network Pvt Ltd , 2011 (45) PTC 70 (Del) holds that quality matters more than quantity — a short extract that is the essence of the work, used without a genuine critical or reportage purpose, is not saved by fair dealing. This guide sets out what falls on each side of the Section 51 / Section 52 line, the criminal provision in Section 63, the platform's own position under Section 79 of the IT Act and the notice-and-takedown regime, and where the deceived viewer's consumer remedy fits.