Music CD DVD pirates get tech savvy
15.08.2006
The piracy trade has graduated from a cottage industry to an IT industry with the difference being that it is making no contribution to India's GDP as opposed to a phenomenal one from the IT industry," Indian Music Industry (IMI) Secretary General Savio D'Souza said.
Piracy is the unauthorised duplication of an original recording for commercial gain without the consent of the rights owner.
The problem of piracy has increased with the rapid advance in technology. New techniques of printing and recording have been developed, making it easy for the pirates to carry on their illegal activities,?he said.
However, he said, in three of the biggest raids, the IMI's anti-piracy teams, with the help of the police, had seized pirated goods worth Rs 32 crore in the last fifteen days fortnight. He have also collated an exhaustive list of the giants operating in the illegal B-2-B space."
While Delhi recorded India's biggest ever raid with seizures worth Rs 30 crore, at the raid in Cannanore, Kerela pirated goods worth Rs 26 lakh were seized. Thereby highlighting the penetration of piracy even in the smaller markets.
The third raid, initiated by IMI and conducted by CID, Ahmedabad, exposed the city's biggest piracy racket, thus, preventing fake goods worth Rs 40 lakhs from flowing into the market,?he said.
One of the biggest illegal CD plant was also sealed recently in Delhi which had the capacity to manufacture 60 - 70,000 CDs a day, says D'souza noting the technology is so advanced that a person sitting in his home, armed with a computer and CD writer can churn out 200 good quality CDs per hour.
"It's time the government, both the centre and the state introduce necessary reforms. This will help give more teeth to the police as well as equip the judiciary better to take stringent action against the accused," said V J Lazarus of Saregama.
The IMI recently took up the issue of introducing an Optical Disc Law in the country, to fight high tech piracy. "Under this, it will become compulsory for every manufacturer to put an identification number on a CD, so that it can be tracked to the source," said D'souza.
As of now there is no control on the movement or manufacture of CDs. Delhi alone has eight CD manufacturing plants and they also are imported from other countries in bulk. It thus becomes very difficult to track the source of the CD.
Also, music piracy should be treated as an organised crime and once arrested, there should be no provision of bail,?he said. The Indian music industry today stands at Rs 650 crore. The music piracy industry too is of the same amount, clearly reflecting the magnitude of the problem, the IMI official said.
Source:
Press Trust Of India
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