Centre mulls new Act to eradicate piracy

The government is contemplating bringing in a new Act called the 'Optic Disk Law' to eradicate piracy in the country, S Jaipal Reddy, Union minister for information and broadcasting, told mediapersons here on Sunday.

"Due to piracy, the entertainment industry is incurring heavy losses. Keeping this in mind, the government is considering either to make proper amendments in the existing Copyrights Act or bring in the new Optic Disk Law in the next Parliament session, he said.

Terming high entertainment tax as one of the main reasons for piracy in the country, he said, "In some states like Uttar Pradesh, entertainment tax is 100 per cent. The state governments have been asked to reduce the tax. Already, the Andhra Pradesh government has slashed the entertainment tax significantly. The central government is organising a two-day state information ministers' conference on April 16-17 in New Delhi to discuss about the entertainment tax,"he said.

The government has also decided to set up a regulatory authority to check obscenity on television channels, Reddy said.

"Recently, the government cancelled the licence and uplinking facility of 'Cine World' channels because of obscenity. Several countries have autonomous regulatory authorities to control the TV channels. In India too, we have the Press Council of India, which is the regulatory authority of print media. Likewise, the government will set up an autonomous regulatory authority to keep a tab on obscene scenes shown on TV channels,"he said.