In the case of Eastern Book Company & ors. vs. D.B.
Modak & Anr. [(2008) 1 SCC 1], Hon'ble Supreme Court has held that the Copyright Act is not concerned with the
original idea but with the expression of thought. Copyright has nothing to do
with originality or literary merit. Copyrighted material is that what is
created by the author by his own skill, labour and investment of capital, maybe
it is a derivative work which gives a flavour of creativity. The copyright work
which comes into being should be original in the sense that by virtue of
selection, coordination or arrangement of pre-existing data contained in the
work, a work somewhat different in character is produced by the author. On the
face of the provisions of the Copyright Act, 1957, we think that the principle
laid down by the Canadian Court would be applicable in copyright of the
judgments of the Apex Court. We make it clear that the decision of ours would
be confined to the judgments of the courts which are in the public domain as by
virtue of Section 52 of the Act there is no copyright in the original text of
the judgments. To claim copyright in a compilation, the author must produce the
material with exercise of his skill and judgment which may not be creativity in
the sense that it is novel or non-obvious, but at the same time it is not a
product of merely labour and capital. The derivative work produced by the
author must have some distinguishable features and flavour to raw text of the
judgments delivered by the court. The trivial variation or inputs put in the
judgment would not satisfy the test of copyright of an author.