HOLLYWOOD: ATTACKS FILM PIRACY ON CABLE TV

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has tried to crack down on illegal showing of its member studios' films by Indian cable TV operators in the past. With little success. Indian cable TV operators stop telecasting Hollywood blockbusters when the heat is on, only to switch them on again the moment things cool down. Their source for the films - pirated CDs, VCDs and LDs from the Far east - because India has a minuscule home video market.

Nevertheless, the MPAA is trying once again to slam the door on this illegal practice resorted to by the Indian cable TV trade. Last week, the MPAA won a crucial verdict when the Delhi High Court ordered the two leading Indian cable TV MSOs, the Hinduja-run InCablenet, and the Rupert-Murdoch-Subhash Chandra-owned Siticable to stop showing pirated Hollywood films on their networks. The Court also directed the police to cooperate with the MPAA in every possible way to curb cable TV piracy. The association represents the interests of nine Hollywood studios operating in India: Disney, 20 th Century Fox, Time Warner, Columbia Pictures, Paramount, MGM, Tristar, Universal and Lucasfilm.

In fact, the MPAA followed up the court directive with raids on a couple of cable operators in Mumbai and even seized VCDs of pirated films, including the soon-to-be theatrically released Virus.

The two major cable operators responded to the court verdict by denying that they ever indulged in piracy on their networks. "We reiterate that we don't air pirated Hollywood fare on our cable TV network from our control rooms or headends," says a Hinduja spokesperson. "Local sub-franchisees may be putting a trap, blocking a channel and showing pirated English movies on the channel. We cannot control that yet we try our best and have warned our franchisees not to conduct such wrongful activities."

The fact that such denials are being made clearly indicates that all is not right. One cable TV network in Mumbai has in fact created an encrypted package which includes a Hollywood movie channel and is selling the service along with a decoder box to its subscribers. Another network in Mumbai too has been flagrantly showing the latest Hollywood blockbusters.

If English cinema were popular in small towns, cable operators would freely show the latest movies there too. But fortunately for the Hollywood studios, cable operators in the interiors telecast pirated Hindi and other regional language movies. Even the Indian Motion Picture Producers Association has tried its hand at bringing a halt to this malpractice but has failed. It took out a protest march with members from the trade including actors last year. The measure had an impact for a very short duration. Hindi titles were on on cable TV networks within a fortnight of the protest by the film trade.

So will the current clampdown work? Unlikely. While India has a strong copyright law, its implementation is lax. And efforts to curb piracy have been coming in spurts. A sustained campaign is the need of the hour with funding coming from the Hollywood studios. But even this may not do the trick because of the vast spread of cable TV networks all over India. However, it will at least make the cable TV trade cautious.

A track that film maker Vidhu Vinod Chopra followed with some success last year when he hired a security agency and worked closely with the police to keep a watchful eye and prevent the illegal telecast of his film Kareeb.