“Mathematical questions are an expression of laws of nature. The discovery of such laws cannot confer a monopoly to those who describe it,” the Court remarked.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court recently remarked that since mathematical equations and science subjects are a matter of fact and laws of nature, each and every person is authorised to use them without any fear of copyright infringement [Addala Sitamahalakshmi vs State Of Andhra Pradesh].

Justice V Sujatha thus concluded that academic or non-literary books even if pirated by a publisher, would be protected under Section 52 of the Copyright Act which states that certain acts of fair use would not amount to infringement of copyright under the law.

“Once a book is declared as part of a syllabus, then, students are free to use the questions in it in any manner and therefore, guide books that are helping the students to solve the questions will also be covered under the fair use and exception to copyright,” the Court observed.

The Court made the observations in its decision on two petitions filed by the proprietor of a publishing house Deepthi Publications in 2011.

Besides challenging a 2010 government order that restrained private colleges from publishing text books of Telugu Akademi, the petitioner Addala Sitamahalakshmi also sought quashing of a criminal case registered against him in 2011 for alleged piracy.

The Court looked into the provisions of the Copyright Act to decide whether the books published by the petitioner would be protected under the exceptions to the copyright infringement.

It observed that the law unequivocally prescribes that there is no copyright except as provided in the Act, meaning that copyright stands converted from a natural or common law right to a statutory right. 

“Copyright as a natural or common law right has thus been taken away by the Copyright Act. There can be no copyright in any author, composer or producer save as provided under the Copyright Act,” the bench opined.

On what works are protected under the law, the Court reasoned that the Copyright Act is applicable only to original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works.

In the present case, the Court noted that the petitioner publishes and distributes books of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Botany and Zoology which cater to the needs of students studying intermediate, 11th and 12th class of CBSE and ICSE Boards.

“Mathematical questions are an expression of laws of nature. The discovery of such laws cannot confer a monopoly to those who describe it. The reason is that language is a limited medium, which enables a description of such laws of nature,” it added.

Delving further into the copyright law, the Court said the Act protects literary, musical, graphical, or other artistic forms of the works in which the author expresses the intellectual concepts.

While clarifying that original work would be a subject-matter of copyright, the Court also said the following,

“But this is not the case with mathematical equations and science subject, as they are the matter of fact and laws of nature, so each and every person is authorized to use it without the fear of copyright infringement.”

In this backdrop, the Court opined that books published by the petitioner are protected under Section 52 of the Copyright Act “which states that fair use is an exception to copyright infringement in the case of an educational use for the benefit of students and educational institutions.”

“Therefore, even if the petitioner books are assumed to be the pirated copies of respondent No.2‘s books, the same action can be considered as an exception as defined under Section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957,” the Court concluded.

The Court further said that Section 13 of the Copyright Act states that only “original” literary, artistic, dramatic, and musical works are the subject matter of copyright. 

In the present case, the Court found the books in question to be of non-literary nature and therefore concluded that they would not fall within the ambit of Section 13 of the Copyright Act.

Thus, the Court quashed the criminal proceedings against the petitioner and directed the authorities to not interfere with the legitimate business operations of the petitioner under the guise of the government order.

On the challenge against the government order, the Court said the decision was mainly targeted against the colleges which were directed not to prepare books on their own.

“Assuming for a moment, if the petitioner wants to challenge the said G.O. in the interest of public, he has to file public interest litigation by specifically narrating the public injury that would be caused by the said G.O,” said the Court, as it refused to prayer for setting aside the government order.

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