Section 79 – THE COPYRIGHT ACT, 1957

(1) The Indian Copyright Act, 1914 (3 of 1914),
and the Copyright Act of 1911 passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom as modified in its
application to India by the Indian Copyright Act, 1914 are hereby repealed.
(2) Where any person has, before the commencement of this Act, taken any action whereby he has
incurred any expenditure or liabilities in connection with the reproduction or performance of any work in a
manner which at the time was lawful or for the purpose of or with a view to the reproduction or
performance of a work at a time when such reproduction or performance would, but for the coming into force
of this Act, have been lawful, nothing in this section shall diminish or prejudice any rights or interests
arising from or in connection with such action which are subsisting and valuable at the said date, unless the
person who, by virtue of this Act, becomes entitled to restrain such reproduction or performance agrees to pay
such compensation as, failing agreement, may be determined by the 1
[Appellate Board].
(3) Copyright shall not subsist by virtue of this Act in any work in which copyright did not subsist
immediately before the commencement of this Act under any Act repealed by sub-section (1).
(4) Where copyright subsisted in any work immediately before the commencement of this Act, the rights
comprising such copyright shall, as from the date of such commencement, be the rights specified in section 14 in
relation to the class of works to which such work belongs, and where any new rights are
conferred by that section, the owner of such rights shall be—
(a) in any case where copyright in the work was wholly assigned before the commencement of this
Act, the assignee or his successor-in-interest;
(b) in any other case, the person who was the first owner of the copyright in the work under any Act
repealed by sub-section (1) or his legal representatives.
(5) Except as otherwise provided in this Act, where any person is entitled immediately before the
commencement of this Act to copyright in any work or any right in such copyright or to an interest in any such
right, he shall continue to be entitled to such right or interest for the period for which he would have been
entitled thereto if this Act had not come into force.
(6) Nothing contained in this Act shall be deemed to render any act done before its commencement an
infringement of copyright if that act would not otherwise have constituted such an infringement.
(7) Save as otherwise provided in this section, nothing in this section shall be deemed to affect the
application of the General Clauses Act, 1897 (10 of 1897), with respect to the effect of repeals.