The Supreme Court of India has passed a far-reaching judgment resolving the question of whether copyright infringement, which is punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend up to three years under the Copyright Act of 1957, is a cognisable offence under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973. While the Knit Pro International v. The State of NCT judgment is sparse in its reasoning, its conclusion is clear: copyright infringement is a cognisable offence under the CrPC.
In simple English, this means that the police can begin investigations into allegations of copyright infringement on receiving a complaint. If the court had held copyright infringement to be a non-cognisable offence, the police could have started investigations only after a judicial magistrate had taken cognisance of the offence and directed the police to initiate an investigation. The immediate consequence of this judgment is that many copyright owners, especially in the software and music industries, will use the threat of police involvement to scare potential infringers, to extort licence fees in excess of the amount payable in a scenario where the police cannot get involved without prior judicial authorisation. As a result of the offence being made cognisable and non-bailable, it takes away the right of the accused to post a bail bond with the police and shifts the responsibility on to the courts for judicial determination on a case-by-case basis.
