In May, Pocket FM, an on-demand platform for podcasts and audiobooks approached the Delhi High Court with the allegation that its competitor, Kuku FM, was violating Indian copyright law.
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The accusation
Kuku FM is being accused of doing so by putting up audio summaries of a few popular self-help books that Pocket FM said it had an exclusive license for.
The books whose copyright Pocket FM is accusing Kuku of violating are global bestsellers such as books by Robert Kiyosaki like Rich Dad Poor Dad; Jay Shetty’s Think Like A Monk; Deepak Bajaj’s Be A Network Marketing Millionaire; and Brian Tracy’s Eat That Frog.
It is seeking Rs 2 crore in damages.
Exclusive audio rights
Pocket FM signed a deal in March with Manjul Publishing House which held the Hindi rights to these books.
This agreement gives it the exclusive audio rights to these books which Kuku FM is violating by publishing summaries of the titles.
Pocket FM’s lawyers argued that adaptations include abridgments and that even if Kuku’s summaries had an original analysis or way of expression, they were still committing copyright infringement.
They said that the summaries also consisted of verbatim extracts and used exact anecdotes as mentioned by the author.
Kuku defends
Kuku countered by saying that its summaries did not break any law and that it was creating something new by analyzing and interpreting the contents of the book it was summarizing.
It said that the summaries were not book summaries in the traditional sense, but were original creative works produced by “permeating their intellect and creativity” into the books.
The summaries were entirely different and did not have any plagiarism detected either.
It also denied Pocket’s argument that the summaries are substitutes of the original novels.
Possible outcome if Kuku is found innocent
Geetanjali Visvanathan, a litigator with intellectual property firm Ira Law expressed views seemingly in favor of Pocket FM.
She said, “Publishers don’t want people to create abridgements of their books, because they want to monetize their work themselves.
However, a finding of non-infringement will be detrimental to the publishing industry given that it has just started to venture into the digital age.”
The next hearing of the case is scheduled for November 10.
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