The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Anti-piracy cell is the need of the hour

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 15, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Anti-piracy cell is the need of the hour

LAW &ORDER According to a police official, establishing an anti-piracy cell will greatly help in checking the illegal business, writes K.V. Subramanya

THE STATE Government's seriousness in checking the trade in pirated software, audiocassettes, CDs and DVDs has come to be questioned.

Various steps announced by successive governments over the years to check the pirated trade has merely turned into rhetoric and no concrete measures have been initiated.

In August 2005, the then Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh told the Legislative Assembly that the those indulging in piracy would be booked under the stringent Goonda Act.

Earlier, the S.M. Krishna Government had declared that it would take all measures to make Bangalore a "zero-piracy city." However, a senior police official said that so far they had not received any directive from the Government to invoke the Goonda Act against those indulging in pirated goods business.

At present, those involved in piracy cannot be booked under the Goonda Act.

The Government was yet to amend the Goonda Act, the official said. The illegal trade is thriving in the city despite occasional raids by the police on such business establishments on Brigade Road, S.P Road, S.J. Park Road and in Majestic area, where the sale of pirated software, CDs and cassettes is rampant.

Though checking pirated software, CD, DVD and cassette trade has become a challenge the world over, the city police have apparently not accorded priority to the issue. As a senior police official says, maintaining law and order and checking traditional crimes such as murder, robbery and theft are still the priorities of the police here. Unlike in many other States, the local police do not have an anti-piracy unit, and most of the policemen are not trained in detecting pirated software, CDs and cassettes.

On the other hand, the over-burdened police rarely get time to gather intelligence about the pirated CD and software trade.

Most of the time it is the members of the Indian Music Industry (IMI), International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) and the Business Software Alliance (BSA) who inform the police about such business.

Many a time, though the police have information on the illegal trade, the officials have difficulty in distinguishing the pirated ones from the genuine.

Setting up an anti-piracy cell involving the police and representatives from the industry would help in checking the illegal business. All cases relating to the Copyright Act, including pirated book trade, should be entrusted to the anti-piracy cell, he suggested.

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