Section 51 – THE COPYRIGHT ACT, 1957

Copyright in a work shall be deemed to be infringed—
(a) when any person, without a licence granted by the owner of the copyright or the Registrar of
Copyrights under this Act or in contravention of the conditions of a licence so granted or of any
condition imposed by a competent authority under this Act—
(i) does anything, the exclusive right to do which is by this Act conferred upon the owner of
the copyright, or
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[(ii) permits for profit any place to be used for the communication of the work to the public
where such communication constitutes an infringement of the copyright in the work, unless
he was not aware and had no reasonable ground for believing that such communication to
the public would be an infringement of copyright; or]
(b) when any person—
(i) makes for sale or hire, or sells or lets for hire, or by way of trade displays or offers for sale or
hire, or
(ii) distributes either for the purpose of trade or to such an extent as to affect prejudicially the
owner of the copyright, or
(iii) by way of trade exhibits in public, or
(iv) imports 2*** into India,
any infringing copies of the work:
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[Provided that nothing in sub-clause (iv) shall apply to the import of one copy of any work for the
private and domestic use of the importer.]
Explanation.— For the purposes of this section, the reproduction of a literary, dramatic, musical or
artistic work in the form of a cinematograph film shall be deemed to be an “infringing copy”.