COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

India is just one of the victims of music piracy, reveal experts

Piracy is a product of new technologies and the movement in illicit goods is backed by organised crime on the international scene.

At a press conference organised in Bombay by the Indian Music Industry, director general and chief executive of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, Nicholas Garnett, said that because of the new and changing technologies, music piracy has become rampant.

In the years to come, music will continue to be delivered differently, through digital video discs, computers and on-line systems. A standardised development of copyright legislation and enforcement of the legislation on the international scene would help protect new performers within a legal framework.

Piracy on the international scene is worth $ five billion, including 360 million compact discs and $ 1.5 billion music cassettes while in India it nets Rs 2.1 billion, involving mostly the sales of audio cassettes.

Music piracy has ruined the industry in Singapore and Bangladesh. Director, anti-piracy, IFPI, Ian Grant said that the enforcement structures in India is dwarfed by the problems in greater China where about 42 replication plants of CDs existed till recently as the Chinese government has came down heavily and reduced the number to 21. In India, one in every three audio cassettes is pirated.

Grant said that piracy is rampant in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, China, Bangladesh, Russia, Commonwealth of Independent States and among the Latin American countries like Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Panama and Argentina. The mafia is most active in Italy, Argentina and Russia.

Some countries are used as transit centres. Citing an example involving a Swiss national in Singapore, Grant said that the final destination for 50,000 CDs was Moscow, the four consignments were hauled at Finland Airport.

Recently, Russia has proved to be a fertile ground for the criminals to flourish. Organised crime was a continuation of conspiratorial enterprises conducted for economic gains. Grant said that a multi-limbed standardised strategy of legislation, education and technology along with traditional responses of arresting, prosecuting, sentencing and seizing assests could help curb piracy at the international level.

UNI

Rs 7b Indian music market rises to tackle piracy

Today's business stories