The government is set to formulate an updated copyright law amending the existing laws in the country, said Manzurur Rahman, Registrar at Copyright Office.
“As the existing copyright laws have some weaknesses and ambiguities, we will amend the laws to bring them up to international standards, and ensure interests of stake -holders by protecting rights of their intellectual properties,” he said.
Manzurur briefed about the law’s new draft at a workshop jointly organized by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and Copyright Office at Shilpakala Academy in the capital on 11 July, 2012. Opinions from stakeholders were gathered on the proposed amended law named Copyright (amended) Act, 2012. The country’s existing law on copyright is Copyright Act 2000 (amended in 2005).
Noted cultural personality and lawmaker Asaduzzaman Nur, Bangladesh Computer Samiti President Mustafa Zabbar, musicians Hamim Ahmed, Maqsudul Haque, Sujit Mostafa singer Momtaz Begum MP, and poet Nurul Huda, among others, spoke at the workshop.
Asaduzzaman Nur said he would place a final draft of the law to the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry of cultural affairs by incorporating recommendations of the stake-holders.
Mustafa Zabbar urged the government to remove some problems and inconsistencies in the law before formulating the amended law.