Question

Read the following statements and choose the correct option. Under the Copyright Act, 1957: Statement I: In the case of a posthumous literary work, copyright subsists for sixty years from the beginning of the calendar year next following the year in which the work is first published. Statement II: For such works, publication refers to making the work available to the public by issue of copies or by communication to the public.

• A. Both Statements I and II are true
• B. Both Statements I and II are false
• C. Only Statement II is true
• D. Only Statement I is true

Hint:

For copyright duration questions, always identify whether the work is ordinary, anonymous, pseudonymous, cinematographic, or posthumous because each category has a separate computation rule.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

Step 1: Ordinary works under Section 22 get sixty years counted from the year after the author's death, but that formula cannot work for a posthumous work because the work is published only after the author has already died.

Step 2: Section 24 solves this by anchoring the sixty-year term to a different event, the year following first publication, rather than the year following death, which is exactly what Statement I says.

Step 3: To know when first publication happens, Section 3 of the Act supplies the definition: making the work available to the public either by issuing copies or by communicating it to the public, which is exactly what Statement II says.

Step 4: Since the special posthumous rule in Statement I and the publication definition in Statement II both trace directly back to the statute without any distortion, neither statement can be marked false.
\[ \boxed{\text{Both Statements I and II are true.}} \]

Answer 2

Instead of checking each statement against a section number, it helps to test what would have to be true if either statement were wrong, and see whether that holds up.

1. Testing Statement I as false: If posthumous works followed the same sixty-year-from-death rule as ordinary works, there would be no need for a separate provision dealing with them at all, since Section 22 would already cover every case. The fact that the Act carves out a distinct rule tied to the year of first publication shows that posthumous works are treated on their own terms, which confirms rather than contradicts Statement I.
2. Testing Statement II as false: If publication meant something narrower, say only a physical print run, then a purely digital release or a public reading of a posthumous manuscript would never count as publication, and the sixty-year clock in Statement I would never start running for such works. Since the law does treat communication to the public as publication too, Statement II's broader description is necessary for Statement I to function at all.
3. Option A (both true): Both survive this stress test, since neither assumption needed to make them false actually holds.
4. Option B (both false): Ruled out because neither statement collapses under scrutiny.
5. Option C (only Statement II true): Ruled out because Statement I withstood the test just as well.
6. Option D (only Statement I true): Ruled out because Statement II withstood the test just as well.

Testing each statement by asking what would follow if it were false confirms that both hold up together rather than one at the expense of the other.

Hence, the correct answer is Option A: Both Statements I and II are true.