Information and Communication II: the Information Industry; IPR and Legal Issues; Plagiarism; the Right to Information Act and the Information Technology Act; and the National Knowledge Commission and the National Mission on Libraries

Intellectual property rights are legal rights over creations of the mind, granted for a limited time so that creators can benefit while society eventually gains free use. The main categories are copyright and related (neighbouring) rights; patents; trademarks; industrial designs; geographical indications; layout designs of integrated circuits; protection of plant varieties; and undisclosed information (trade secrets). Copyright matters most to libraries because it covers books, articles, music, films, software and databases as compilations, and it arises automatically on creation without registration.

India's laws follow these obligations. The Copyright Act 1957, amended most substantially in 2012, protects literary works for the author's life plus 60 years, sets out fair dealing for private use, research, criticism, review and reporting in section 52, permits libraries to make limited copies in section 52, and since 2012 allows accessible-format copies for persons with disabilities (section 52(1)(zb)). The Patents Act 1970 was amended in 1999, 2002 and 2005 (the 2005 amendment restored product patents for pharmaceuticals, as TRIPS required). Other statutes are the Trade Marks Act 1999, the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act 1999, the Designs Act 2000, the Semiconductor Integrated Circuits Layout-Design Act 2000 and the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act 2001. The National IPR Policy was adopted in May 2016. Creative Commons (founded 2001; licences from 2002, current version 4.0) lets authors keep copyright while granting permissions in advance: BY (attribution), SA (share-alike), NC (non-commercial) and ND (no derivatives), and CC0 waives rights altogether.

Plagiarism is presenting another person's words, ideas, data or work as one's own without due acknowledgement. It is an ethical offence in research and education even when no copyright is infringed (copying from a public-domain source without credit is still plagiarism), and it is distinct from copyright infringement, which can occur even with full credit. Libraries fight it through citation teaching, reference managers and similarity-checking software, and India's INFLIBNET runs the Shodh Shuddhi service (from 2019) that gives universities a plagiarism-detection tool.

The University Grants Commission (Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations 2018 set graded levels for research work, based on similarity after excluding quotations, references, bibliography, common knowledge and generic terms: similarity up to 10 per cent is Level 0 (minor, no penalty); above 10 and up to 40 per cent is Level 1; above 40 and up to 60 per cent is Level 2; and above 60 per cent is Level 3. For a student's thesis the penalty rises from revising and resubmitting within a set period (Level 1), to being barred from resubmitting for a year (Level 2), to cancellation of the registration (Level 3); for teachers and researchers it rises from withdrawal of the manuscript to the withholding of annual increments and of the right to supervise research. The regulations also require institutions to teach research ethics and set up an Academic Integrity Panel.

The Right to Information Act 2005 came fully into force on 12 October 2005 and replaced the Freedom of Information Act 2002. It gives every citizen the right to information held by or under the control of a public authority. Section 4 requires public authorities to maintain records and publish information proactively; section 6 lets a citizen apply in writing or electronically, with a prescribed fee (₹10 under the central rules) and without giving reasons; section 7 requires a reply within 30 days, or 48 hours where the life or liberty of a person is involved; section 8 lists exemptions such as national security, cabinet papers, personal information and information that would impede an investigation; and sections 19 and 18 provide first appeals within the authority and second appeals and complaints to the Central or State Information Commission. Libraries are both users of the Act and, when they are public authorities, bound by it.

• The Right to Information (Amendment) Act 2019 let the central government prescribe the term, salaries and conditions of service of the Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners, which the Act had previously fixed; rules made in 2019 set the term at three years.
• The Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, in section 44(3), amends section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act so that it exempts "information which relates to personal information", removing the clause's earlier test of larger public interest from that sub-section.

The Information Technology Act 2000, in force from 17 October 2000 and based on the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce (1996), gave legal recognition to electronic records and digital signatures, set up Certifying Authorities under a Controller, and defined cyber contraventions and offences. The Information Technology (Amendment) Act 2008, in force from 27 October 2009, broadened "digital signature" to technology-neutral "electronic signature", added data-protection duties for bodies corporate (section 43A), new offences such as identity theft, cheating by personation, violation of privacy and cyber terrorism (sections 66C to 66F), blocking powers (section 69A) and a safe harbour for intermediaries (section 79). The Supreme Court struck down section 66A (offensive messages) in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015). The Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules 2021 govern platforms, and the DPDP Act 2023 omits section 43A.

The National Knowledge Commission was constituted on 13 June 2005 as a high-level advisory body to the Prime Minister, chaired by Sam Pitroda, to transform India into a knowledge society. It worked until 2009, organising its recommendations around five focus areas: access to knowledge, knowledge concepts (education), knowledge creation, knowledge application and the delivery of services. Libraries fell under access to knowledge, and a working group on libraries prepared its recommendations, later published as Libraries: Gateways to Knowledge. The central recommendations were to set up a National Commission on Libraries; prepare a national census of all libraries; revamp library and information science education and training; reassess staffing and professionalism; set up a central library fund; modernise library management with ICT and digitise collections; encourage community participation and public-private partnerships; and promote networking and resource sharing.

The National Mission on Libraries was set up by the Ministry of Culture in 2012, taking forward the Commission's recommendations, with the Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation (RRRLF) in Kolkata as its nodal agency. Its work has four components: the National Virtual Library of India (NVLI), a single portal to digital content from Indian libraries, archives and museums; the setting up of model libraries by upgrading selected national, state central and district libraries; a quantitative and qualitative survey of libraries to build a baseline; and capacity building of library staff through training.