The Hindu : Kerala News : Video libraries can be illegal: IG

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 02, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala

Video libraries can be illegal: IG

Staff Reporter

Rishi Raj Singh

KOCHI: Distribution of video CDs on rent is not permissible under the strict observance of the Copyright Act, said Rishi Raj Singh, Inspector General of Police and nodal officer of the Anti-Piracy Cell.

Video libraries also fall under the purview of the ongoing search, as the Copyright Act allows only home viewing and selling of CD, and not renting them out. "During a search conducted at Changanassery recently, we found a shop renting out around 20,000 CDs without any authorisation letter," Mr. Singh said.

Certificate

A certificate from copyright owner allowing renting out of the video CD is required for operating libraries. All libraries working without these certificates should be treated as illegal, he said.

The Anti-Piracy Cell led by Mr. Singh took into custody nearly 1,000 CDs on suspicion of being pirated.

The CDs were confiscated after a search done at Music World, a shop on M.G. Road here on Monday. The search party was looking for marks of authenticity such as name and address of copyright owner, name and address of marketing agency and packaging date for audio CDs and censor board certificate for video CD.

"These are the marks stipulated in the Copyright Act. In this particular case, I have asked the local police to register a case of forgery as well, as the shop was using a forged seal of the Censor Board on the CDs," said Mr. Singh.

Though another search was made at Alfa Videos, Kottayam, only 8 or 9 CDs taken from there were pirated ones.

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