In a civil suit filed by UTV, the Delhi High Court has passed an order restraining cable operators nationwide from distributing, telecasting and broadcasting any movie/show infringing the copyright of UTV. The superintendents of concerned police stations are directed to provide assistance for the enforcement of the order. This directive also restricts 1600 known Cable operators and unknown persons nationwide from showcasing their upcoming movie Thank You.
This is the first ever case of a court granting pre-emptive relief from piracy to a plaintiff and is a huge step forward in the ongoing battle against copyright infringement.
Anand Desai, Partner, DSK Legal, who appeared in the High Court on behalf of UTV, will send warning notices to the cable operators. "Cable operators have been exploiting the movie industry by illegally screening films on their networks almost immediately after theatrical release of a film. Film piracy has reached gargantuan proportions, causing tremendous leakage in revenues of film producers," said Desai. KPMG's media and entertainment report 2011 states that the piracy market in India is estimated to account for 600-700 million unit sales for DVD each year. The distribution platform for the illegitimate market is estimated to be spread over 10000 vendors. While five movies were sold on one DVD and costing Rs 50 until two years ago, the same is now available for Rs 20. "This is a very positive step for curbing growing illegal activities," said Jehil Thakker from KPMG.
Siddharth Roy Kapur, CEO, Motion Pictures, UTV, is confident that this decision is a milestone judgement to tackle piracy. "Piracy has been plaguing the entertainment industry for decades now and is one of the biggest impediments to the growth of the business. We are confident it will act as a huge deterrent to cable piracy going forward."
However, online piracy remains a huge challenge for the industry as there is an increasing trend of illegitimate movie download and streaming of films from the internet.
10 April 2011 — The Sunday Guardian.
No comments:
Post a Comment