On Saturday, a workshop at the National University of Juridical Sciences will clue in public prosecutors and police officers on the nuances of Intellectual Property Rights Act.

In the teachers’ seats will be representatives of Indian Music Industry, the association of music-producing companies. What has brought them down from the Mumbai headquarters is the fact that West Bengal, along with Bihar, has not recorded a single conviction in music piracy cases.

“The cases are piling up here, at least 500 of them,” retired super cop Julio Ribeiro says. “Even if police carry out raids, what is the point if the cases are not concluded? We are here to goad the administration.”

Ribeiro leads a crack team of ex-cops who sniff out piracy hubs and work alongside police across the country. “We have registered about 10,000 cases in the past five years. Every five-and-a-half hours, there is a raid somewhere. Every 19 seconds, we pick up a pirated CD,” says Savio D’Souza, secretary-general of IMI.

In Bengal, the IMI team, under retired IPS officer Kiriti Sengupta, conducted 111 raids in 2005, while the police did 177.

In 1994, human resources development minister Arjun Singh had directed every police department to start an audio-video anti-piracy cell. Only Tamil Nadu and Kerala set it up. Hence convictions are highest in the south. Even a Chhattisgarh court has given a full penalty under the Copyright Act this July — six months’ imprisonment and Rs 50,000.

Yet, say the IMI representatives, Bengal is among the most active in terms of raids. “The problem starts after that. In the absence of a specialisation, the same officers are handling all sorts of crimes,” Ribeiro says. Which is why along with police, the public prosecutors, too, are being invited.

Piracy is killing the music industry, D’Souza says. Illegal downloading is not a big threat yet in India, MP3 CDs are. “Ultimately, it is a question of how India is perceiving intellectual property rights violations, be it in films, books, software, gaming or music. So far, we have fought a lone battle,” D’Souza rues.