Copyright Act, No Text-and-Data-Mining Exception, Database Compilations, and Technological Protection Measures
Copyright Act, 1957 (No. 14 of 1957), ss. 2(o), 51, 52, 63, 65A
A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.
In force since 21 January 1958.
A copyright and text and data mining (TDM) rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 7 September 2026.
What it requires
- Get the rights holder's authorisation before reproducing or reusing copyrighted material, including a copyrighted database or compilation, to train an AI model; the fair-dealing exceptions do not name text-and-data-mining or AI training as a covered purpose.
- Do not circumvent an effective technological protection measure applied to a work with the intention of infringing a right the Act confers.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
Knowing infringement under section 63 carries imprisonment of not less than six months and up to three years, and a fine of not less than fifty thousand rupees and up to two lakh rupees; circumventing a technological protection measure under section 65A separately carries imprisonment of up to two years and a fine.
Penalty structure
Section 63's penalty for knowing infringement. Section 65A's separate technological-protection-measure offence carries up to two years' imprisonment and a fine of an unspecified amount on the face of the section.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- 7 September 2026
- Minimum
- 50,000
- Currency
- INR
- Fixed cap
- 200,000
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Section 2(o) defines a literary work to include computer programmes, tables and compilations including computer databases, so a database or compilation is protected only as an ordinary literary work rather than under a separate sui generis database right, which the Act does not create.
Section 51 makes any unlicensed exercise of the copyright owner's exclusive rights an infringement, and section 63 punishes a knowing infringement with imprisonment of not less than six months and up to three years, and a fine of not less than fifty thousand rupees and up to two lakh rupees.
Section 52(1)(a) confines fair dealing, for any work other than a computer programme, to private or personal use including research, criticism or review, and the reporting of current events and current affairs, and names no exception for text-and-data-mining or AI-model training.
Section 65A separately makes it an offence, punishable by up to two years' imprisonment and a fine, to circumvent an effective technological protection measure with the intention of infringing a right the Act confers, subject to listed exceptions including encryption research and authorised security testing. The Act has applied since its own commencement, 21 January 1958, per notification under section 1(3).
When LexLint raises it
crawls_webtrains_models