M/s. D.K. Agencies Private Limited v. State of Karnataka
In the High Court of Karnataka
Cr. P. 7279/2016
Before Justice Anand Byrareddy
Decided on November 23, 2016

Relevancy of the case: Permission from an author for selling their books online

Statutes & Provisions Involved

• The Copyright Act, 1957 (Section 63)
• The Information Technology Act, 2000 (Section 65)

Relevant Facts of the Case

• The petitioner is a publisher of books and he sells it online. He contacts authors publishing their books and asks for permission to sell their books online.
• The second respondent, who is the complainant, is the author of a book. The petitioner contacted the complainant and purchased a book with cost ₹500. The complainant sent this book by post at ₹542. The petitioner claims that in the subsequent communications, he took permission from the author/complainant to sell this book online. The respondent claims that no such communication was done and no permission was granted. Merely, a copy of the book was sold to the petitioner by respondent number 2/author/complainant.
• According to the respondent, the petitioner has not taken permission and is also selling the books abroad at exorbitant prices.
• A complaint was lodged by the respondent number 2 upon such events which the petitioner finds baseless as he had not sold a single copy of that book. He just placed the offer and any enquiries of the sale would be directed to the respondent number 2. The petitioner did not appear before the trial court.

Opinion of the Bench

• The bench held that they find merit in the case filed by the respondent number 2. The order which shows that the petitioner is an absconder should be recalled when an appropriate application is filed. The lower court is also ordered to not take the petitioner under custody until the time his application is disposed of.

Final Decision

• The petition is disposed of since the petitioner did not appear before the trial court.