The Copyright Bill 2023 was passed in Parliament on Monday providing a penalty of Tk 5 lakh for publishing, serving, or performing any work of others without having a copyright of such content.

For the violation of copyright of films, the maximum punishment is five years of imprisonment and Tk10 lakh in fine.

State Minister for Cultural Affairs KM Khalid moved the Bill in the House and it was passed by voice vote.

The proposed law will replace the Copyright Act 2000.

Several definitions have been added and removed in the draft law.

Definitions of anonymous or pseudonymous work owner, database, public domain, monogram, producer, person, folk song, folk culture, editor, and property rights have been added.

If there is any intellectual property issue for the visually impaired, it is mentioned in the law to ensure it.

Penalty has been put in place to prevent piracy. Digital such as computer-based activities have been brought under the law, which was not the case earlier. Actions have been proposed against copyright infringement on digital platforms.

New clauses have been added to the law to protect the rights of folk songs.

In the objective of the Bill, the minister said that copyright is an important issue for the legal recognition and protection of intellectual property that is created through creativity and culture.

Realising the importance of copyright at the national and international levels, the Copyright Act, of 2000 was enacted in conformity as much as possible with international law.

The Act was subsequently amended in 2005.

In the context of tremendous advancements in technology over the last two decades, the use of intellectual property and technology dependence have increased manifold, and due to the increase in piracy, the proper management and protection of intellectual property requires further revision of the existing copyright laws.

In that context, the Bill entitled Copyright Act, 2023 has been prepared.

In line with the Marrakesh Treaty, clauses for the visually impaired have been added.

New clauses proposed to prevent piracy. provisions for a Task Force on Enforcement of Intellectual Property Law have been added.

A separate chapter for the protection of folklore and folklore rights has been added while a new chapter related to royalty has also been added.

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