Censorship through Copyright : From print to digital media

In 2007, following the practice of erecting pandals (tent-houses) in the style of famous buildings during the Durga Puja celebrations, the FD Block Durga Puja Committee in Salt Lake, Kolkata had recreated the Hogwarts School of Magic and Wizardry from the popular ‘Harry Porter’ stories by J.K. Rowling (Anon 2009a). To its dismay, with 90 per cent of the work on the pandal complete and with the festival a few days away, the FD Block Puja Committee received a 394-page summons served on it by Penguin Books, the publisher of J.K. Rowling’s books. The publisher demanded a compensation of Rs 20 lakhs for copyright violation through unauthorised use of an idea from Rowling’s book (Anon 2009b). The matter went to court and the Kolkata High Court in its order directed the Puja Committee to pull down the structure immediately after the festival was over, but exempted it from paying any compensation to the publisher