Laws on Visiting Torrent Sites in India

Torrent sites have been pleasing the movie buffs and music lovers for many years now. The news of torrentz being taken down was a big blow for them. But what created much turmoil was the warning displayed on the screen while accessing torrent website, that said-

“Infringing or abetting infringement of copyright-protected content including under this URL (Torrent website) is an offence in law. Ss. 63, 63-A, 65 and 65-A of the Copyright Act, 1957, read with Section 51, prescribe penalties of a prison term of up to 3 years and a fine of up to Rs.3 lakhs.”

The notorious aspect of the above warning is that some media reports are claiming that just visiting the blocked URL, could land you in jail for 3 years and fine of up to Rs. 3 lakhs. ‘BUT THIS IS NOT TRUE’, read on to know the exact legal position on visiting the torrent sites.

What is torrent?

For those who are not familiar with torrent, it’s a platform for file-sharing that spreads across multiple computers and is often used for piracy, but not always. Torrent does not host files itself; it just acts as a search engine, directing people to sites that facilitate peer-to-peer sharing of pirated content.

Legal Position of torrent in India

Copyright is a person’s exclusive right to publish or sell his or her original work. It is based on the principle that, the law does not allow another to steal what has been produced by the skill and labour of others. The categories of works that can be protected by copyright laws include literary works, movies, dramatic or musical works, and sound recordings. The issue here is that the torrent sites contain mostly those items that are covered by copyright law and they are making it accessible to the public to use it freely.

Law on visiting torrent sites

As per the Indian Law, merely ‘VISITING AND BROWSING A TORRENT WEBSITE IS NOT AN OFFENCE’. Even if a person downloads files from torrent, he will still not be breaking any laws provided he is viewing it in private. The law regarding it is given under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957 which states that private use shall not constitute an infringement of copyright.

But as per Section 63 of the Copyright Act, 1957 if a person knowingly infringes or abets the infringement of the copyright in a work by making copies, distribution or public performance, it will be an offence when done without the permission of the copyright holder. This offence is punishable by a fine which could extend to Rs. 3 lakh and 2 years jail term.

Therefore, merely viewing a pirated content on the torrent sites would not make you an offender.

This was all on the legal position of torrent in India. If you want to read more such interesting and knowledgeable articles, Sign-up to EasyAdvocacy today and be your own legal expert.