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Food Science Daily

Last updated September 2026

Copyright & Content Sources

Where the papers, notices, syllabi and study material on Food Science Daily come from, what Indian law says about how we use them, and how to ask us to change or remove something.

In short

What the law protects

Copyright in India is governed by the Copyright Act, 1957. For a written work such as a book, question paper or notice, the owner has the exclusive right, among others:

"(i) to reproduce the work in any material form including the storing of it in any medium by electronic means; (ii) to issue copies of the work to the public not being copies already in circulation; (iii) to perform the work in public, or communicate it to the public;" Copyright Act, 1957, s.14(a)

Papers and notices issued by government bodies are not free of copyright. The Act makes the government their first owner:

"(d) in the case of a Government work, Government shall, in the absence of any agreement to the contrary, be the first owner of the copyright therein;" Copyright Act, 1957, s.17, proviso (d)

The same applies to public undertakings and statutory bodies (s.17(dd)). Copyright in these works lasts sixty years from first publication (ss.28 and 28A).

Links to free PDFs

A link is not a copy. When you follow one of our PDF links, the file comes from its owner's own server, published there by the owner for anyone to read. We reproduce nothing and issue no copies. Indian law also expressly protects the technical storage involved in providing links:

"(c) transient or incidental storage of a work or performance for the purpose of providing electronic links, access or integration, where such links, access or integration has not been expressly prohibited by the right holder, unless the person responsible is aware or has reasonable grounds for believing that such storage is of an infringing copy" Copyright Act, 1957, s.52(1)(c)

The risk the law targets is linking to pirated copies. The Act treats it as infringement when a person:

"(ii) permits for profit any place to be used for the communication of the work to the public where such communication constitutes an infringement of the copyright in the work, unless he was not aware and had no reasonable ground for believing that such communication to the public would be an infringement of copyright" Copyright Act, 1957, s.51(a)(ii)

The Delhi High Court has ordered whole websites blocked for linking to pirated content (UTV Software Communication Ltd. v. 1337x.to, CS(COMM) 724/2017, decided 10 April 2019). That is exactly why every PDF link here goes to the owner's own copy. Before adding a link we check that the host is the owner or an authorised open repository and that the file opens there. Many FAO and WHO publications are licensed CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO; linking to them does not copy or adapt them, so the licence terms are not engaged.

Commercial books

For textbooks and guides sold commercially, we link to a marketplace search so you can buy the current edition. We do not copy their text, tables or questions into our tests.

Previous-year papers

Where a test is built from a real previous-year paper, the questions belong to the body that set it, not to us. On every such paper we name that body and the year, and our worked explanations, answer analysis and topic tagging are marked as our own work.

The Act allows certain uses for study and review:

"(a) a fair dealing with any work, not being a computer programme, for the purposes of— (i) private or personal use, including research; (ii) criticism or review, whether of that work or of any other work;" Copyright Act, 1957, s.52(1)(a)
"(i) the reproduction of any work— (i) by a teacher or a pupil in the course of instruction; or (ii) as part of the question to be answered in an examination; or (iii) in answers to such questions;" Copyright Act, 1957, s.52(1)(i)

We are candid about the limits. These exceptions are specific; Indian law has no general exemption for anything done "for educational purposes". The Delhi High Court read "in the course of instruction" broadly, but only to the extent the purpose of instruction justifies (University of Oxford v. Rameshwari Photocopy Services, RFA(OS) 81/2016, Division Bench, 9 December 2016). Question papers are also not among the official documents the Act lets anyone republish, which are Gazette matter, Acts with commentary, reports laid before a legislature, and judgments (s.52(1)(q)). So we treat previous-year papers with care: we credit their owners, build our own explanations and analysis around them, and remove a paper promptly if its owner objects.

Official notices and syllabi

Exam notices, advertisements and syllabi are linked at their official source wherever it is online. Where a board has taken a notice down, we may keep a copy so candidates can still read the rules they were examined under, and we say that it is an archived copy. Syllabus pages give our own outline of the official syllabus and link to the original; the board's own document is always the final word.

Our own content

Original mock-test questions, explanations, analysis, rankings and the design of this site are copyright Food Science Daily. You may use them for your own preparation. Please do not copy, republish or sell them.

Report a problem or request removal

If you own a work used or linked here and object, or you find a link that looks like a pirated copy, email our Grievance Officer, Johnathan, at johnathan@foodsciencedaily.com with the page address and the work concerned. We acknowledge complaints within 24 hours, disable access to the disputed material while we review it, and resolve complaints within 7 days. This follows the Act's own notice procedure for links:

"Provided that if the person responsible for the storage of the copy has received a written complaint from the owner of copyright in the work, complaining that such transient or incidental storage is an infringement, such person responsible for the storage shall refrain from facilitating such access for a period of twenty-one days or till he receives an order from the competent court refraining from facilitation access" Copyright Act, 1957, s.52(1)(c), proviso

For material posted by users, we act on notice as required of an intermediary under s.79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Read the law yourself

This page explains how we use and link content. It is not legal advice.