Established in 1998, the Rameshwari photocopy shop is a favourite among students to photocopy study material.
In a major relief to Delhi University-based photocopy shop Rameshwari, the group of international book publishers — Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Taylor and Francis — who filed an infringement copyright suit against the shop withdrew the case on Thursday.
“We have taken a considered decision not to pursue the Delhi University photocopy shop case further in the courts and will be filing an application with the Delhi High Court to withdraw as plaintiffs,” the triad said in a joint statement.
Established in 1998, the Rameshwari photocopy shop is a favourite among students to photocopy study material. “This is a big relief for us. Now, we can serve the students, who can’t afford expensive books, without any fear,” said Dharampal Singh, the owner.
The publishers had filed a case against the shop in August 2012 for selling photocopies of parts of their books to students. The Delhi High Court, however, on December 9, 2016, allowed the shop to photocopy the copyrighted material for educational use under the Indian Copyright law and there was no restriction on how much the book is copied.
On Thursday, the publishers also said that they will submit an appeal to the Supreme Court of India, following the Delhi High Court Bench appeal decision on December 9, 2016.
Counting the five-year-long struggle, Singh said, “Before December 9, we used to say refuse unknown people who would come to us for photostats of international books. You cannot identify who is a student, or who is just scrutinising”.
“This development can be seen as a back-step by the publishers in the fear of losing the legal battle. Anyway, we are really happy that the shop can now serve us without any fear,” said Saurabh, a third-year student at Delhi School of Economics (DSE).
Besides, the publishers said that they now want to work “more closely with academic institutions, teachers, and students to understand and address their needs”.
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