The Hindu Business Line : `Poor enforcement affecting protection of copyrights'

Way out?
Public prosecutors, police need to be armed with accurate information.
Music companies should have open more of their own retail outlets.

Kolkata , Dec. 9

A major hurdle to effective tackling of the menace of music piracy in India under the Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) regime is poor enforcement of punitive laws. Enforcement agencies need to not only understand the laws but also know how to enforce these, as applicable to all four piracy-prone areas of music, films, software and publishing.

Mr Julio Ribeiro, former Police Commissioner of Mumbai, and DGP, Punjab, and now heading the Anti-piracy Cell of the Indian Music Industry (IMI) said both public prosecutors and police, who execute and implement the Copyright Act (1957), as it exists today, need to be armed with accurate information to best execute their duties.

Music piracy

He felt police officials and magistrates had to be sensitised on this issue of music piracy and IPRs. Mr Ribeiro spoke to newspersons at the sidelines of a workshop on "IPRs with special reference to Music Industry", organised jointly by the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences & Indian Music Industry.

Asked what preventive steps could be initiated in the short term, he said music companies, which have begun to cut their losses in the last three years, should have more and more of own retail outlets. He said it might not be a bad idea to involve the HRD Ministry in the enforcement process, especially for the purpose of periodic monitoring.

He also favoured the introduction in India of an "Optical Disc Law", like in developed countries, under which an indelible "Sid Code" special number has to be mandatorily embossed on all musical products to prevent copying. According to Mr Savio D'souza, Secretary General of IMI, the representative body was the third best raiding team in the world in 2004, having carried out more than five raids per day.

Anti-Piracy Team

He said IMI, a consortium of over 50 music companies involving big names such as Saregama, Universal Music, Tips, Venus, Magnasound, Sony Music and Sangeetha, also have an Internet Anti Piracy team, which has been instrumental in shutting down more than 600 pirated sites in the last seven years.

Pointing out that the music industry has helped itself to tackle this menace by launching the anti-piracy cell 10 years ago, Mr D'souza said of the 10,000 cases initiated against alleged offenders since 2000, some 2000 convictions have been achieved so far, with some 500 acquittals.

According to Mr Ribeiro, not a single case of piracy has been heard by the courts in Bengal till date (no recording of evidence), which was quite amazing. Attributing this to perhaps lack of adequate number of judges, Mr Ribeiro said "the judicial process (read as justice administration system) perhaps does not work in the manner all citizens want it to work".

More Stories on : IPR | Music & Dance | Piracy | Economic Offences

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page