Tucked away behind the canteen of the Delhi School of Economics, there is no signboard offering directions to Rameshwari Photocopy shop, which has been at the centre of a debate on copyright laws after three international publishers filed a suit against it in the High Court. The shop is only identified by the constant buzz of photocopy machines at work.
It was business as usual on Friday afternoon, a few hours after the High Court lifted a ban on the photocopier kiosk in a landmark verdict. There is no sign of emotion on the face of the owner, Dharam Pal Singh. “I don’t want to offer comments before I read what the court has said. I just got to hear the news. It is good for the students of Delhi University,” he says.
‘Thanks to students’ group’
Dharam Pal says the case was filed in 2012, when one day he received a notice demanding a fine of 1 million dollars. Court officials had come and seized some of the reading bundles from the store. “It is thanks to the student community and an association of students - Association of Students for Equitable Access to Knowledge (ASEAK) - that we have been able to fight back,” says Dharampal.
Explaining the issue, Dharam Pal points to the index from a booklet of readings for first year Sociology students. “Look at the list of readings. If students start searching for these, it will take them an year to find them. Some of them are out of publication, some are only published abroad, and some are pages from an Encyclopedia,” he says. What the photocopy shop does is to put together all the suggested readings into one bundle and sell them for approximately Rs. 800, depending on the number of pages. “If students were to go out and purchase these readings, they would have to spend a fortune. Either students get the material photocopied, or DU needs to change the reading list,” adds Dharam Pal.
However, Dharampal refuses to talk about the future without taking a look at the verdict first. He says he has been running the photocopy shop for over 20 years. The business began with two old photocopy machines and has served the students of Delhi University well, something Dharampal wants to continue.
Look at the list of readings. If students start searching for these, it will take them an year to
find them
