Walking the plank

Music industry associations are pressing for measures to curb piracy in India.

Try this. Log onto the websites www.chalchitra. com and mp3india.com and click on the section devoted to music downloads. You'll find yourself staring at the message: "This page cannot be found." Go to geet4u.com, and the website doesn't exist anymore. Big deal, did you say?

Actually, it is, especially if you knew that some of these websites, until almost 10 months ago, offered Netizens the option to download music illegally.

Meanwhile, authorities from Indian Music Industry (IMI) proudly narrate a success saga from Tamil Nadu. Music sales over the past eight months have picked up considerably and gone up by 20 per cent. "Overall," confirms V J Lazarus, president, IMI, "piracy is getting curbed in Tamil Nadu."

Even sales of original DVDs and VCDs have increased and sales of film tickets at counters has gone up by 30 per cent. IMI feels it has happened due to the inclusion of audio and video piracy under the Goonda Act and now the organisation along with IFPI is in talks with other state governments like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, West Bengal and Gujarat to press for the same.

Which is why, last month in New Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai, IMI officials and Iaian Grant, head of enforcement, International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI), met CBI officials, police commissioners and joint commissioners of Indian Police and authorities from FICCI to talk on piracy issues plaguing the Indian entertainment industry.

Lazarus feels a beginning has been made for the industry that, despite being the third largest entertainment industry in the world, makes no contribution to India's GDP. "It is 0 per cent as compared to the US music and entertainment industry that contributes nearly 6 per cent to the country's GDP," he says, adding, "This despite the fact that Indian music is gaining increasing popularity around the world."

Grant is confident that together with IMI, government and legal authorities, "IFPI will train anti-piracy teams and senior police officers to crack the whip on on-line websites that offer illegal downloads and even places where discs, cassettes and VCDs are illegally manufactured and sold."

Having returned from Pakistan, Grant informs us of raids in Pakistan where five CD plants have been shut down, arrest warrants issued against owners of the plants and an estimated 4,00,000 pirated optical discs seized. In New Delhi, even as IMI and IFPI officials met, a raid in Palika Bazaar helped officials seize nearly 20,000 pirated music CDs in one single day.

"Every effort will be made to detain the key suspects," promises Grant who along with IMI authorities has pressed for a draft to be formulated by FICCI that will ensure ways to what he calls a "full-stop on piracy faced by the Indian entertainment industry".

With Pakistan forming the Pakistan Intellectual Property Rights Organisation (PIPRO) to oversee copyright, trademark and patent protection issues, in India, Grant feels, "Slapping a severe penalty on goons indulging in piracy will make a difference."

Savio D'Souza seconds the statement, "It is futile if we just raid manufacturing plants and the owners go scot-free after every few days. The entire legal system needs to support an industry that is losing nearly Rs 450 crore to piracy alone."

It remains to be seen "" and heard "" if efforts by IMI and IFPI can garner better tunes for the music industry in India.