Relevance of Neighbouring Rights in India in the Context of the 2019 European Union Directive

Neighbouring rights, which form a subset of copyrights, are those subsidiary, yet parallel, rights that are accrued to a specific class of people that comprises not the actual authors but the neighbours to the authors. The class includes performers, broadcasters, producers and organizers, etc., and in some countries, makers of databases. Of late, as per European Union (EU) Directive No. 2019/790 dated 17th April 2019, the press publishers have also been included in the class. The primary objective of this paper is to revisit neighbouring rights in India in the context of the impugned provisions of the EU Directive on the neighbouring rights of press publishers. The paper tries to know whether it is a ripe time to extend such neighbouring rights to press publishers in India. To reach a logical conclusion, the paper reviews the existing literature on neighbouring rights jurisprudence in India in reference to the Copyright Act, 1957. It also assesses the international instruments governing neighbouring rights, especially the Rome Convention. Last but not the least, it critically reviews the impugned provisions of the 2019 Directive. The paper employs analytical and descriptive methods to testify facts and theoretical frameworks governing the subject.