Copyright and Satire: An Indian Legal Perspective in a Global Context

Abstract

The journey of copyright law has always witnessed an interesting interaction between protection of original work and respecting fundamental right of speech and expression. One subset of this is the relation between copyright and satire. Authors, critics, comedians and cultural commentators have the right to make fun of work which often gets constitutional protection in liberal democracies. But while doing this how does it interfere with copyright jurisprudence remains underexplored. This article examines legal status of satire in Copyright law in India while comparing with the international legal landscape through countries like United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.