| MUMBAI: One session
at the Frames convention looked at the progress made in the field of Intellectual
Property Rights (IPR). It looked at fight against piracy and what needs to be
done. The speakers were Time
Warner US senior VP international relations and public policy Asia Pacific Hugh
Stephens, Motion Picture Association executive VP and director worldwide anti
piracy operations John G Malcolm, Isan MD Patrik Atallah, India Government registrar
of copyrights Rohit Kansal, Stonebridge International senior advisor Raymond Vickery,
DLAPiper China managing partner Jingzhou Tao, Wipo’s Jorgen Savy Blomqvist
and T Sengupta Associates CEO Tamali Sengupta. Indian Music Industry president
V.J. Lazarus says that the IMI has visited the 25 optical disc plants in the country.
It has so far shutdown 630 sites which offered illegal music downloads. In three
cases it has introduced forensic methods to build evidence. Last year 6.8 raids
were conducted each day a rise of 58 per cent. 7.41 arrests were made everyday.
9500 CDs
were seized each day a rise of 86 per cent compared to 2005. It managed
943 convictions. This amounts to a conviction rate of 85 per cent compared with
the national average of four per cent. It has introduced over 100 police training
programmes. In Tamil Nadu the Goonda Programme was enforced with strong results.
It was the state with the most number of convictions.Malcolm notes that cost
of making a Hollywood film on an average last year was $100 million. Six out of
10 films do not recoup their investment. A major reason for this is piracy. It
is not an American problem alone he notes. In 2005 the film industry globally
lost 18.2 billion dollars. MPA members lost one third of this amount. 186 million
was lost in Bollywood. 92 per cent of the loss was Bollywood’s. For filmmakers
it is like taking money out of their wallets. “Organised gangs know
that this is a low cost high return business. The profit is upwards if 500 per
cent. In India you have professional camcoder thieves. They use high quality digital
cameras. Internet piracy is growing. It took 38 minutes to illegally download
a copy of Nishabd for free. It is important for there to be a multi pronged approach
to identify targets. It is
also important to maximize efforts and use public
education as a means to get across the message.” He spoke about the
MPA introducing two DVD sniffing dogs Lucky and Flo. Last year the Malaysian authorities
used the dogs help to seize one million pirated discs. Altogether the Malaysian
government seized six million units. Then a an ad was put out by the pirates offering
a reward to anyone who would kill the dogs. That is how grave the menace is says
Malcolm. Wickerie was representing the US Indo business council. In conjunction
with Ficci they have started the Bollywood Hollywood initiative. The aim is to
bring precision to the loss that the Indian entertainment industry is suffering
as a result of piracy. The aim is also to use the optical disc legislation and
other technologies to fight piracy. The aim is also to involve the Indian and
US
governments more fully to fight the problem. Stephens spoke about
the draft of the optical disc law that has been presented to the I&B Ministry.
An optical disc covers CD, DVD, VCD etc. The aim of the law which has been in
passed in countries like Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea is to tackle the piracy problem
upstream. Laser beam recorders, glass or polymeric masters are among the ingredients
used to make optical discs. It is estimated that there were 20 plans in India
making optical discs. 581 million discs were made last year. Such a large number
allows for the possibility of illegal content to be inserted. The optical
disc legislation aims at supplementing the copyright infringement actions. The
optical disc law has 10 elements. This includes licensing of plants, establishing
a registration system for those engaged in commercial burning, providing for inspection
authority so that plants are not making illegal products. Sample discs must also
be collected for forensic purposes. A source identification code should be given
to discs, blanks, masters/stampers. A mechanism should allow the authority to
deny, suspend or revoke a license if a plant is making discs that have pirated
content. Controls should also be imposed on the export of discs and export
and import of raw materials used to make discs. Offering a viewpoint from the
government Khansal notes that a virtuous coalition of affected parties needs to
be formed “Tackling piracy is at the top of the government’s agenda.
We want to cut off the losses caused as a result of IPR theft. We are in the
process
of making amendments to the copyright law. It is however also important that the
copyright holder stand up. It would good if a platform was created that would
bring the government, judiciary and IPR holders on one platform.” Blomqvist
notes that Wipo has held three congresses on fighting piracy and counterfeiting.
One suggestion that came out of the last congress is that each country establish
a national task force. This will facilitate coordination between the private and
public sectors to fight the menace. For instance a customs official should be
able to contact the rights holder to check if a shipment of a particular property
is legal or not. The structure of sanctions imposed should be reviewed. Sengupta
notes that one problem in India is that there are not enough legal outlets to
buy Hollywood films on DVD and VCD. Courts also do not allow for punitive damages.
It is only an approximation of the actual loss. On the television front the courts
have in the past have come down on the issue of MSOs inserting ads. Time shifting
is also frowned upon. Tao says that piracy exists in China due to the large
number of production lines and also due to the quota restriction of around 20
foreign films that a cinema hall can show. 87 per cent of optical disc production
in China is underground. The local authorities need to have the incentive to help
the government at the center tackle the issue. | 
