Pirates of creativity

Even as the industry tries hard to rein in video piracy, it needs to organise its house first.

The friendly neighbourhood video library may be the most convenient and cheapest way to catch the latest Hollywood/Hindi blockbuster. But is it legitimate?

"Barring a few, most of the approximately 30,000 video-rentals in the country are illegal. In fact, put together they may not even round off to 1 per cent," says Sweta Agnihotri, vice-president and head (films), Saregama. And it's not only about illegal copying of discs, or circulating pirated CDs, most video-libraries rent out CDs meant for home viewing.

In September last year, a Delhi high court judge, Reva Khetrapal, came down heavily on Cinema Paradiso, a new generation rentailer with operations in Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Coimbatore, for renting out films copyrighted by Motion Picture Association (MPA), which represents a number of big Hollywood studios. MPA estimates the loss through unlicensed renting amounts to $85 million a year.

No wonder Indian companies, which hold the home-video distribution rights of these Hollywood studios, have been working overtime to device a licence arrangements to suit rentailers here.

Saregama, which represents Warner Home Video, Paramount, Universal, MGM and BBC, has been mapping video-rentals in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai and Chandigarh over the past one year and now has a model licence, a commercial and legal arrangement, ready.

"We will be sending it to libraries this week," says Agnihotri. The licence will be for six months as of now, and the fee has been fixed at "affordable" levels to ensure compliance. "Legitimising the business is our primary objective."

"Legitimacy is the biggest incentive," that M Kapasi, managing director, Excel Home Video, is holding out to rentailers in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore whom the company began tying up in licence agreements three months ago. Excel distributes 20th Century Fox, Buena Vista, HIT Entertainment, Brittanica, Merchant-Ivory Productions and a host of other international studios.

At Excel, licence fees is worked out depending on how many titles a rentailer wants to buy, the size and potential of his business, the socio-cultural profile of its clientele, the kind of films it wants to see. "For example, mass market, Hindi films would attract lower fee while world cinema would attract higher," says Kapasi.

Sony Pictures India launched a similar initiative last month. "Rental libraries have not been monetised by any studio," says Anupam Sengupta, marketing manager, Sony Pictures India, "One year into our operations, we decided that it's time they pay a licence fee for using our products." The annual fees "" Rs 10,000 for large stores, Rs 7,500 for kiosks and Rs 50,000 per city for online operators.

There are sops for rentailers who fall in line as well. For Dor, Excel came up with a special package for rentailers. "If they wanted two copies, we offered them five at a slightly higher cost, allowing them to capture far more business during the crucial first weekend "" but they had to offer customers a 50 per cent discount in prices."

Strangely, however, Indian film producers, who lose far more than the Hollywood studios are not working to develop a licence regime. "We've had talks with other production houses but nothing concrete has come up yet," informs Siddhartha Roy Kapur, senior vice-president, UTV.

The problem, says Savio D'Souza, secretary general, Indian Music Industry, which works on anti-piracy advocacy for its member companies, is that the film industry is fragmented. "It will need a body like the Photographic Performance to administer these rights, but there does not seem to be any move to set up such a body."

But whatever these measures, they won't succeed unless viewers support them.