VOICE OF PROTEST: Actor Vivek Oberoi campaigns against music piracy

The scene is familiar. By the roadside in Old Delhi’s Chandni Chowk area, hawkers are peddling hundreds of audio cassettes and compact discs. Like a heap of potatoes, they are laid out in the sun. Bhajans, ghazals, remixes, film songs — you can buy everything and at less than half the market price. Reason: this is pirated stuff.

The spectacle can be duplicated in most towns or cities all across India. Every town has a well-known area where pirated music cassettes are sold — on the sly or openly.

For India’s beleaguered music industry, piracy is a problem of massive proportions. Estimates show that between the years 1999-2002, the industry lost about Rs 1,800 crore to such illegal players. Of the average 4.9 crore cassettes that sell every month, 1.7 crore are manufactured and sold by those who pay neither royalty nor taxes. “About 40 per cent of the cassettes sold are pirated,” says V.J. Lazarus, president, Indian Music Industry (IMI). The state exchequer loses some Rs 75-100 crore every year owing to such a practice.

According to the Indian Copyright Act, offenders should face tough penalties with fines up to Rs 2 lakh and a maximum number of three years in jail. But many get away cheaply because, as former Supreme Court Justice B.. Kirpal points out, “Piracy is seen as a minor offence.” While judicial leniency is seen as a major reason for the rise of piracy, former Mumbai police commissioner Julio Ribeiro, who is the chief co-ordinator of IMI’s anti-piracy operations, points out another problem area for the music industry. “The cases move very slowly through the courts and often convictions are obtained after lapses of several years,” he says.

But now, the music industry has launched a legal offensive to counter the pirates. It is lobbying with the law ministry to impose higher financial penalty against such violators, working towards amendments in the Copyright Act to stop remix robbers from running riot and organising seminars to create more awareness in the judicial system against piracy.

Says Lazarus, “A higher financial deterrence could curb piracy. For instance, in Holland, possessing even one pirated audio CD could cost you a fine of $75,000.” In comparison, in India, many get away with a fine of between Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. Even the highest fine of Rs 50,000 is a hardly a deterrent for many pirates.

And yet, in Malaysia, for instance, even first-time infringers on copyright laws get five years’ rigorous imprisonment. France fines individuals about 1,000,000 francs and corporates 5,000,000 francs for copyright violations. In the United Kingdom, a music pirate Yogesh Raizada was sentenced to three years of imprisonment along with a fine of £160,000.

The music industry is also pushing for amendments in the Copyright Act which will be more friendly to original composers and music directors. “If it is carried out, remixing a song would require the prior approval of the copyright owner. Right now the matter rests with the HRD ministry,” says Lazarus.

Downloading ringtones, most of them film songs, is another form of music piracy. “Most telecom companies do not pay any royalty to anybody for ringtones. That is tantamount to copyright infringement,” says lawyer Pavan Duggal. And the music industry is looking into this aspect of copyright violation as well, hoping that it will become part of the amended Copyright Act.

There are also efforts on to find strategies to counter Internet music piracy. “The IMI is also considering asking the government to impose a levy on blank compact discs as most of them are used for piracy,” says Ribeiro.

Many feel there is a need to create more awareness among judges and prosecutors about the seriousness of the crime. “They need orientation. One should organise symposiums and workshops to make them understand the gravity of the crime,” says former Supreme Court Justice B.. Kirpal. In fact, the IMI is already holding training sessions to educate law enforcement agencies as well as the judiciary so that they are more responsive to the protection of Intellectual Property Rights. Soon, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) plans to organise a seminar on those lines.

The initiative hasn’t come a moment too soon. Music piracy is a menace that kills the industry both commercially as well as creatively. Illegal copying means less money to everyone involved in the legitimate business. In other words, profits come down. Consequently, few music companies are willing to take risks. Says Lazarus, “When you don’t have the revenue to plough back into the industry, it is the artiste and the creative process that suffer most.”

Even the consumer is a loser because he gets less diversity to choose from, as record labels shy away from investing in new talent, untested sounds, opting instead for cheap and easily digestible music. The rise of the remix albums is, in fact, directly linked to the phenomenon of piracy.

But music industry officials feel that the industry is getting stronger on the legal front. The anti-piracy team formed under Ribeiro has carried out over 7,000 raids since 1997. Over 4.3 million cassettes and 1.73 million CDs have been seized. From the same year onwards, the IMI has also secured 40 convictions; the pirates getting jail sentences between three months to three years. “There has been a definite message sent to the pirates that the IMI will vigorously pursue prosecutions,” says Ribiero.

At least that bit of news is music to many ears.