Transformative Metamorphosis Under Copyright Law

Transformative works form the bedrock of the doctrine of “fair use” as such works offer and assure breathing space within the precincts of the law

- Aishwarya Chaturvedi

A lot of people take inspiration from other’s copyrighted work to create something new, whether it is a movie, song, or painting. No matter whether the inspired work is adaptive work, derivative work or transformative work, the question is whether a person is legally allowed to do so or not? To know the answer, it is imperative to know and understand the copyright law.

Copyright is the most interesting as well as important aspect of Intellectual property. It is the exclusive right of a creator over their literary, musical, and artistic works. The primary purpose of Copyright law is to protect the creative expression of an idea that it is transformed into a book, musical work, film, painting, etc. However, before we delve deeper, it is important to understand the concepts of adaptative work, derivative work and transformative work and whether it is permissible as well as protected under the copyright law.

Although adaptations, derivatives and transformative works are similar, transformative work belongs to a completely different genus as opposed to derivative work and adaptive work.

Adaptation - It pertains to work that is same as the original work that is presented in a different format. For example: Harry Potter, the famous fantasy novel has been adapted into movie. Here, the original work is a book and the movie is its adaptation, which means the new work is same as the original work and only the format of presentation has been changed.

Derivative works - Artistic or literary work derived from one or more existing works but includes sufficient element of originality. The Spanish translation of Dan Brown’s novel “The Da Vinci Code” is an example of a derivative work.