Experts Call for Comprehensive Reforms in Piracy Laws

Experts Call for Comprehensive Reforms in Piracy Laws

SONIPAT, India, August 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --



-  O.P. Jindal Global University Hosts Roundtable on 'Piracy and its Impact on the
Film Industry'



- While Piracy Keeps on Damaging Creative Communities, There's no one Single Body to
Prevent Piracy in India, say Experts



- Roundtable Organized as a First Step to Collectively Create a Position Paper That
Will Help Draft Legislature to Engage With law Makers and Government in a More Rigorous
Manner



Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) and Centre for Intellectual Property and Technology
Law (CIPTEL) at O.P. Jindal Global University organized and hosted a roundtable discussion
on 'Piracy and its Impact on the Film Industry'. This was a first-of-its-kind attempt
where academicians, strategic decision makers, actors, producers, politicians, and
industry stakeholders came together to deliberate the issue.



(Photo:
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160802/394881 )




In his welcome address, Prof. (Dr.) C Raj Kumar, Vice Chancellor, O.P. Jindal Global
University said that a systematic and institutionalized form of piracy had engulfed the
world of innovation and creativity.



Prof. Kumar highlighted the need for larger engagement with policy makers and said,
"Today change is possible through concerted action in a sustained manner. In India, big
issues have been addressed through collective consciousness and people coming together to
address these issues. Todays' effort is a similar one. "



Prof. Kumar also emphasized that there was a need to elevate the discourse from just
the revenue impact of piracy as a problem to a larger social impact in relation to issues
surrounding dishonesty and integrity.



Chief Guest, Actor Suriya spoke of how as an actor and producer he has experienced the
pain of piracy taking away his rightful revenues and how if left unattended, the impact of
piracy is going to multiply many fold.



Sharing figures from a FICCI report, he pointed out that as against the industry size
of 13, 820 crores the piracy industry size is 18, 000 crore. He said, "It is alarming that
the piracy industry in size is larger than the film industry."



Speaking about digital cinema Suriya highlighted, "Digital cinema is a boon to the
film industry but also the pirates. With the advent of high-end mobile phones, huge
Internet penetration, digital cameras and hand-held camcorders it has become easy for
pirates to shoot with the support of hall owners in most cases and distribute
instantaneously to 1000's of sites."



He further shared examples of films like 'Kabali', 'Udta Punjab', 'Great Grand Masti'
and 'Sultan' which have lost a lot of revenues due to digital piracy. He added, "'Sultan'
earned 300 crore with 2.5%.of the population viewing it in theatres, while estimates
indicated that over 7 crore people would have watched it through links, drives and
mobiles."



The actor appealed for collective action and said, "We require a strategy and all
stake holders need to come together. The state, judiciary, industry and the consumers need
to join hands to fight this battle against piracy."



Mr. Arpan Banerjee, Asst. Professor, JGLS & Executive Director, CIPTEL said, "One of
the problems with the whole discourse about copyright is that it is cased under the
umbrella of intellectual property which is a very wide. Reporting in media or
parliamentary discussions are dominated by discussions on pharmaceutical patents and
prices, thus ignoring the issue of piracy under copyright law."



Speaking on the impact of technology, Ms. Lohita Sujith, Director, Corporate
Communications, Motion Picture Associations (India Office) said, "We need to be connected
in a safe world and information needs to flow but in a safe manner. The biggest impact for
us has been rogue websites which have illegitimate content and there is a complete
underground economy."



"As Indians, let's try to inculcate honesty in whatever we do including judicious use
of technology to curb piracy," was the pledge that Mr. George Baker, Actor and Member of
Parliament, BJP, raised at the Round Table.



Mr. Surender Mann, Senior VP, Star India shared his perspective on the impact of
Piracy in Indian Television Industry. He said, "The absence of strict and definitive laws
is the main reason for the proliferation of piracy, especially in the TV industry."



On the other hand, Prof Shiv Visvanathan, Professor and Vice Dean, JGLS presented a
somewhat different point of view highlighting the socio-economic context and dimensions of
piracy. He tried to look at the problem from the grassroots level saying that piracy may
be the livelihood for a person selling those CDs or DVDs.



Sharing his valuable insights on the problems faced by policymakers on a pan-India
level and underlining the global best practices such as creating a baseline survey and
signing treaties for protection of IP, Dr Narendra Sabharwal, Convener, National IPR Think
Tank noted, "Awareness has to be built for intellectual property to catalyze the knowledge
economy and result in an innovative ecosystem."



Dr Ashwini Kumar, Former Director, CBI and Former Governor, Nagaland threw light of
the origin of piracy and copyright infringement and noted, "The accused could be highly
organized criminals or common people but the law needs to be strict for both ends."



Mr. KTS Tulsi, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India and MP, Rajya Sabha shared the
Singapore experience which has managed to retain the levels of retail piracy. Commenting
on the judicial system he observed, "The PIL route in the Indian judicial system is
extremely unfortunate and acts as a hindrance sometimes."



Mr. Bharat Kapoor, COO, Strategic IP Information gave an insightful presentation on
'Online Piracy Tracking' He pointed out that for online piracy, some of the supporters are
payment processors, ISPs and digital advertisement agencies and explained the functional
policy of 'veri-site' to protect customers against online piracy.



Mr. Rajkumar Akella, Honorary Chairman, Governing Council, Anti-Video Piracy Cell,
Telegu Film Chamber of Commerce highlighted the fact that a great amount of piracy is
syndicated. He spoke at length about the inception, genesis and subsequent success story
of Telengana IP Crimes Unit (TIPCU). "The structured approach of TIPCU in collaboration
with the industry has helped us figure out the hubs of piracy; now, no film is being
pirated in Tamil Nadu for at least two weeks of the release date," said Akella proudly.



Other notable speakers at the conference included Mr. Lavin Hirani, Head (Legal), Red
Chillies Entertainment, Mr. Ritesh Khosla, Senior Vice President Legal, Sony Pictures
Networks, Mr. Rajasekhar Kapoorsundarapandian, Director and Co-producer, 2D entertainment,
Mr. G Dhanjayan, Producer & Founder, BOFTA Film Institute, and Mr. K E Ganvel Raja,
Producer, Studio Green.



All speakers present during the day-long round table reflected on the current status
of piracy in the film industry and how infringement of copyrights has become an open
threat towards its development. The participants also agreed that the key recommendations
and outcomes from this roundtable should be published and disseminated to gain attention
from the government bodies, with superstar Suriya at the forefront as the brand
ambassador.



Prof. C. Raj Kumar in his concluding statement said, "The purpose today is to
collectively create a position paper that will help us draft legislature and better engage
with law makers and government in a more rigorous manner."



About O.P. Jindal Global University 



JGU is a non-profit global university established by the Haryana Private Universities
(Second Amendment) Act, 2009. JGU is established in memory of Mr. O.P. Jindal as a
philanthropic initiative of Mr. Naveen Jindal, the Founding Chancellor. The University
Grants Commission has accorded its recognition to O.P. Jindal Global University. The
vision of JGU is to promote global courses, global programmes, global curriculum, global
research, global collaborations, and global interaction through a global faculty. JGU is
situated on a 80-acre state-of-the art residential campus in the National Capital Region
of Delhi.




 
Media Contact: 
Kakul Rizvi 
krizvi@jgu.edu.in 
+91-8396907273 
Additional Director 
O.P. Jindal Global University 


 





Photo:
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160802/394881


Photo:http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160802/394881
http://photoarchive.ap.org/
Photo:http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160802/394881
http://photoarchive.ap.org/
O.P. Jindal Global University


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