Filmmakers and those associated with the industry have made a fervent plea to bring in laws which can effectively tackle piracy and plagiarism and wanted Kerala to take the lead.
Film industry insiders from India, Europe and Latin America brought a wealth of experience and perspective to a discussion session on "Piracy and original creation" held as part of the ongoing International Film Festival of Kerala - 2015 here.
Celebrated filmmakers Jabbar Patel and Shaji N Karun headed the panel that debated the twin issues from the point of view of the artist, industry and the audience for pirated works, and concluded that a firm stand must be taken in the fight against piracy.
"Very few industry people take this issue seriously", said Jabbar Patel, who recounted an episode where he was accused of plagiarism when another party distributed copies of his production of Vijay Tendulkar's play Ghashiram Kotwal. "We are not just talking about piracy of images. It's life piracy."
"Today when people tell me, 'We don't get to see your movies anywhere'. I tell them Go on YouTube and you can watch it in HD", Patel said in a lighter vein.
Concurring that the shift in movie piracy from DVDs and VCDs to online uploads, Lohitha Sujith, a representative of the Motion Picture association, said "Piracy threatens both local industry and careers in film. These need to be protected. Copyright must not be a right to copy."
Argentinean producer Pablo Chernov said "the problem is very complex since no one can control the internet. So it's a war that is already lost before it has started."
There is a model to be followed in Europe, said Golda Sellam, a French producer and programmer. "In Europe and France, we have a very proud legacy of strict adherence to author rights," Sellam said.
"There is a strong lobby in France to defend the rights of each chain in the production process and a strong watchdog, Hadopi, that protect all the layers if the industry," she added.
If Europe can do it, so can India, said Patel, who added
that there was political consensus on this issue since "Javed Akhtar's Copyright Amendment bill successfully passed through both Houses of Parliament" without a hitch.
"Kerala, being the most vibrant place for cinema, must take the lead in this fight," he said. A sentiment echoed by Sujith who noted that Kerala is one of the few states that has a dedicated video piracy cell.
While backing the need to protect original work, Shaji N Karun offered a note of caution, "the laws must be relevant to the situation as it exists today, not what it was 10 years ago. There must a be line drawn between enforcing the protection of intellectual property and safeguarding the critical right to fair use."
Filmmaker Kamal KM, who moderated the panel, agreed, saying that "once this copyright becomes a narrowly defined law, you are denying its capacity for knowledge too".
Poking holes in the argument for 'pirated knowledge sharing', filmmaker Amartya Bhattacharya said "getting Kurosawa's collected work for Rs 100 off the street-vendor, it should make us as responsible art lovers think about whether we are giving the due respect to the artist and the production process."
"If we don't give that respect, and our money, that kind of art can not be sustainable," he added.
