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2017 (8) TMI 967 - SC - Indian LawsViolation of copyright - stealing the ‘source code’ of a software known as ‘Quick Recovery’ developed by the complainant’s company - Offence under various provisions of the IPC, Information Technology Act as well as the Copyright Act - whether the approach of the courts below is correct in refusing to supply the hard disk and compact disk to the appellant herein? - Supply to the accused of copy of police report and other documents - Held that:- The appellant, when given the cloned copy of the hard disk, is not able to erase or change or remove the same. If that can be achieved by putting some safeguards, it would be the ideal situation inasmuch as provisions of Section 207 of the Code which ensure fair trial by giving due opportunity to the accused to defend himself shall be fulfilled and the apprehension of the prosecution would also be taken care of. We find that CBI, under similar circumstances in the case of Rupesh Kumar, accepted the order of the trial court whereby directions were given to the CBI to supply the hard disk. In the said case, the trial court found that there was no answer from the CBI whether the software in question was unique and there was no other software in the market for the recovery of lost data from the logical cracked hard disk. Number of softwares are available in the market which negated the arguments of CBI that by supplying the mirror image of the documents, the complainant will lose its money and it will be in violation of the Copyright Act, 1957. In that case, the Court took undertaking from the appellant that he would not misuse the copy of cloned CD. We, thus, are of the opinion that in order to comply with the provision of Section 207 of the Code, the hard disks marked Q-2, 9 and 20 be supplied to the appellant subject to the following conditions : (a)Before supplying the said CDs, the contents thereof shall be recorded in the Court, in the presence of complainant as well as the appellant and both of them shall attest the veracity thereof by putting their signatures so that there is no dispute about these contents later thereby removing the possibility of tempering thereof by the appellant. (b)The appellant shall not make use of the source code contained in the said CDs or misuse the same in any manner and give an affidavit of undertaking to this effect in the trial court.
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