The Copyright Act 2059 (2002) protects literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, cinematographic films, sound recordings, photographic works and computer programs. Protection extends to any original work regardless of registration, and lasts for the author’s life plus fifty years; anonymous and pseudonymous works are protected for fifty years from first publication or from being made public, whichever is earlier.
Moral rights are not assignable
Alongside economic rights that can be assigned and licensed, the author holds moral rights that the Act makes inalienable. Even where copyright has been fully assigned, the author may still exercise them. Production and publishing agreements that assume a single assignment settles everything are drafted on a false premise.
Enforcement works
Nepalese courts have applied the Act in both criminal and compensatory terms. In one reported case a defendant who sold and rented copies of Nepali films and music without permission was convicted and the copies confiscated; in another, a photographer whose registered images were used with pasted logos was awarded compensation under section 27(2). Registration is not required for protection, but it converts a difficult evidential argument into a documentary one.