Plagiarism: The Broader Analysis About The Concept And The Enlighting Litigation In The Indian Cinema Industries
India is the democratic nation, and all the citizens have the right to express their opinions, expressions in the society regarding to their thoughts, ideas relevant to any fields or subject matter thereon. Indian statutory bodies have been enacted which provides external protective layer to those powers which are protected and ensured by the supreme law of the nation. Expressing the thoughts is not illegal in India until it is protected and indexed and awarded as the exceptional in the respective subject matters by the statutes. The statute provides those contents as the unique foundation and also provides the protection from the unauthorized access until someone access those contents in the proper authorized way. If any person no complies with those provisions and the sequence of the requisite process before access of those contents, then it can be treated as the unauthorize access in purview of law and the miscreant can be punished according to the required provisions.
Plagiarism is the widely used word in diversified law field, but before dive into the we have to acquire the fundamental knowledge (origin) of the word. The word plagiarism has surprisingly violent, historic roots, the term derived from the Latin word “plagium” (the act of kidnapping), “plagiarus” (a kidnapper or plunder). The etymology traces back to the first century CE and involves a famous literary feud. The word first discovered by the roman poet “martial”. The poet discovered that another poet named fidentinus was publicly reciting and taking the credit of martial’s verse. Because martial viewed his poems as “children”, he accused fidentinus of abducting and stealing them for fame. He used the legal term plagiarius- which traditionally refers to the someone who kidnapped another person’s free children or slaves. The termed transitioned into the English language in early 1600s. dramatist Ben Johnson used the term “plagiary” in 1601 to describe the literary theft and modern noun “plagiarism” emerged in the 1602s.
The Indian cinema known for its limelight, artists, success stories, fames and many more. There are many stories that will inspire every person whether they are involved or not with the industries, but it will be sufficient to flint a fire in the heart for achieving something great, bigger and exceptional from others, the idea which can make you different from others. For the better understanding here is the example:
“A person who is a writer looking for opportunities to kick up his Bollywood journey as a script writer, get a call from the unknown production house about his story was a big deal. The producer assured his story was ripe for a web series with major player. The writer worked for about months on the concept, fleshing out a cohesive story, but it did not pan out. The writer got payment for his work and was told that the story was not working, hence the maker had decided to go in different direction. The writer was surprised when he came across the trailer for a series on a big platform, after passing some years with the concept of his story, just with the setting and few characters changed. “The writer questioned the producers, and they told him that they took the idea from his script and fleshed it out with another writer”. The writer raised the voice about the wrongful act, and they replied they signed off on the idea”.
This is the finest example of the missing credits, stolen scripts and we can be termed as plagiarism. The word is quite normal in the field of copyright litigation where the credit of ideas and the scripts have been stolen from its original authors with lack of legal documented way. Ther are so many incidents that are implicating the rising of plagiarism in entertainment industries.
Figures disclose from SWA (SCREENWRITER ASSOCIATION) that during two months period of the last two years, the body received more than 100th of such complaints, encouragingly more than 60% have been closed. The veteran screen writer Charudutta Acharya disclosing about his proliferation of stolen stories, he said, “old school narration has gone away. There used to be a method where you wouldn’t give away the entire plot until you were signed, and narration took place sitting at a table across from each other. Now there are so many production houses, and everyone wants the full script with outline and pitch note. Then there are so many people in the intermediary, scripts go through too many hands now. The chain of commands is full now. It is easy for the misguided person to borrow the script and decorate it as own, or to give someone else.
Several cases that came to the limelight and others that were settled out of court. But in those cases, producers and corporates paid writers a big amount of money. Due to that the producers become more aware. Even the writers are more aware while signing the contracts and MOUs. The contract still may be a little bit one-sided, but still there is the possibility that can be contested later.
Through its dispute settlement committee, the SWA has established the procedure to analysis those allegations, where the scripts are studied by the impartial experts, and a report is made comparing the two drafts. The report analysis of the story, the plot point, the tones, the characters, and even the subtle things like the highs and lows.it is an attempt to make subjective art of storytelling and analyze the concept in scientific way and the practicality aspect. The involvement of the body like the SWA largely works in getting producers to toe the line.
The courts have taken into cognizance of SWAs analysis report which just not give the credibility to the organization as an arbiter, but also the confidence to the writer.
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