India first enacted the Copyright law in the year of 1847 in the regime of East India Company. In the last 165 years, the copyright laws were amended several times to cater the needs of the changed social environment. Some changes are minor and some are the major changes. However, three major distinctive changes in the law brought the present generation copyright acts of today. In the year of 2010, Government realized that the last sweeping amendments of 1994 and minor changes afterwards did not meet the demand of the current situation. In the last few years, the tremendous growth of digital technology has totally changed the social environment. The advent of internet and the computer technology have posed a challenge to the old concept of protecting the rights of artistic works.
In this context, Government of India felt the need to amend the copyright law to cope with the present situation. The Government sought the opinions from the copyright related people to know their views about the nature of amendments. After long discussions, the Government of India has placed the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010 on the table of Parliament in 2010. Loksabha passed the bill on 22nd May, 2012 and Rajyasabha also passed it on 17th May.