COPYRIGHT ISSUES WHILE POSTING ON INSTAGRAM

The Indian law grants Copyright protection to the creators of original work of authorship such as literary work is a form of intellectual property protection granted under Indian law to the creators of original works of authorship such as literary works, dramatic, musical and artistic works, cinematographic films and sound recordings. Section 13 of the The copyright Act,1957 protects all the aforesaid mentioned. The act protects expressions of ideas than the idea itself. Section 14 of the Act refers to the meaning of the Copyright and the rights that can be exercised by the owner. These rights can also be exercised by someone who has been granted permission or is duly licensed in this regard by the owner. These include the right of adaptation, right to reproduce, right to publication, right to translate, communicate to public etc. The first owner of the copyright is the author that creates it, but this is subject to certain exceptions. As per section 17 of the Act, the employer also becomes the owner of copyright in circumstances where the employee creates a work in the course of employment.

THE PUBLIC AND THE PRIVATE DOMAINS ON INSTAGRAM

Instagram enables the users to upload pictures and videos which can be edited with filters, added with hashtags and can also be geographically tagged. There are two types of account where media can be shared, i.e., public account and private account. In a public account, every user on instagram can view the profile and like their pictures. However, a private account only consists of pre approved followers that can view and like your media only when given permission.

According to Instagrams, the ownership of the media posted is owned by the user. However, the terms and conditions mentions a non exclusive, fully paid and royalty free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use their content. This in turn can possibly been that they have seemed prior permission to use the content posted by the users when they join instagram and agree to the terms and conditions. Now, this agreement is for a non exclusive license. If it were for an exclusive license, the photographers were to sell the image, and posting such an image would result in breach of that license.

HOW TO MAKE SURE IF THE CONTENT IS NOT VIOLATIVE OF COPYRIGHT LAWS

According to Instagram’s Terms of Use and Community Guidelines, a user can post the content on Instagram only if it does not violative of the copyright or other intellectual property right of any other person. However, in order to make sure to post the content that is created by the person himself.

There is a possibility of infringing the copyright of other person even if The user has downloaded a specific content to one’s device. The user has given the owner the credit but still hasn’t asked for permission. even if the user has put up a disclaimer saying that they did not intend to infringe any copyrights. The user can be infringing the copyright even if they do not intend to earn any profit from it. Anything obtained from the internet also comes into this purview, even it has been modified. If someone else has posted a copyrighted content, that does not give the permission to another user to post the same. The user is in infringement even if he thought he was making fair use of it.

Now, if we take into account famous celebrities on instagram. They post many pictures on their account. Their pictures get taken whenever they step outside by many photographers and Paparazzi. However, it is interesting to note that, these photos will be owned the person that takes it. Therefore, even if its your photo, you need to seek permission from the person who took it. It is usually a good idea to obtain written permission from the author of the work, prior to posting the content on Instagram. The uploading user might have the ability to use someone else’s content on the platform if he has obtained prior permission from them, for eg: through obtaining a license. There are many celebrities that have been sued for copyright infringement for posting their own photo on Instagram.

Instagram also allows to forward the links of others' posts to other sites like on Facebook, Twitter etc or by email, text and more. An Instagram user who has access to a post can share such content to their Instagram story also if the content owner has allowed that. However, these guidelines are agreed while making their account public so that is not an issue.

Instagram does not have any provision to repost someone else’s post as their own post, however there are many easy ways to do so. That does not make it legal. If someone wants to repost another Instagrammer's picture to their own instagram account, seeking the owners permission should be done. This can b

e done by commenting and asking for permission, by direct messaging them or by using the main contact on their instagram profile that has their email id.

However, there can be an exception where the copyrighted content is used without seeing permission. Whenever such content is put to fair use, there is no infringement of copyright on their part. Fair use includes criticism, news reporting, teaching our research. In this way, the copyrighted work is just used for reference material and in a way is beneficial to the people in large. The pe chart below show accurate the explanations of fair use becomes when a person thinks he’s using the copyrighted content.

Therefore, it can be seen  that there are multiple copyright issues that can arise when posting  a pictures or any other content on Instagram. This violation of rights can occur even if the persons no intention or no knowledge of such infringement.  Even if a certain diclaimer has been added, or the user has given some kind of credit. Therefore, it is always advisable that any person who is uploading content or anything on the platform like instagram must acknowledge himself with facts like if he/she is the creator or owner?, whether they have permission to use and post such content? whether the post is permitted under a copyright exception?/ or whether such content is copyrighted?

An infringement can only be reported by the owner of the copyrighted content or a person who has been duly authorised by the owner.  If someone takes into account that any infringed content that belongs to some other person, then they shall be conveying this issue to the owner, or eve speak to the person in infringement to take down such content.  Instagram has very well set up of rules and regulations in respect of infringement reports and they have a dedicated team for the same.

-Raksha Singhal