Three publishers locked in a legal battle with a photocopy shop situated inside the Delhi University campus announced on Thursday that they had decided to withdraw their lawsuit against the shop.
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Taylor & Francis released a joint statement saying that they "supported and sought to enable equitable access to knowledge for students."
The publishers decided to withdraw the case against Rameshwari Photocopy Service for selling photocopies of sections of books published by them to students, as they didn't want to engage in a legal battle with their stakeholders, that is, the educational institutions, reported Mint.
The three publishing giants also acknowledged the importance that these local 'course packs' played in the education of students who could not afford to buy expensive books, nor could borrow them from under-stocked college libraries.
According to the Hindustan Times, in addition to withdrawing the case from the Delhi High Court, the publishers also said that they were not going to take up the issue before any other higher court, such as the Supreme Court of India.
In September last year, the Delhi High Court had rejected the publishers' plea against the sale of photocopies of their textbooks, saying that copyright in literary works does not confer "absolute ownership" to the authors.
The publishers had moved the court in 2012, alleging that Rameshwari Photocopy Service on Delhi University campus was infringing their copyright over the text books.
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