Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Piracy: religious leaders back police

Thiruvananthapuram: Taking a cue from how the Church helped law-enforcers stop illegal brewing in the coastal areas of the district in the 1980s, the police’s anti-piracy cell is seeking the support of religious leaders to curb the sale of pirated videos of films and pornography in neighbourhoods known for trade in smuggled goods in the city.

The police and community leaders will form grassroots-level committees in such places to persuade traders to stop selling such DVDs and VCDs, officials said.

Inspector-General of Police (Crime Branch) K. Padmakumar, who coordinates anti-piracy operations, has met certain community leaders. The traders will be given sufficient time for destroying their stock of pirated movies and pornographic films, following which the police will search their shops in the presence of community members.

The Crime Branch is also investigating a Madurai-based businessman suspected to be one of the biggest suppliers of pirated movies in South India. The police will focus more on curbing the sale of pirated versions of the latest Malayalam films.

Much of the high-quality pirated versions of the latest Malayalam movies are reaching Kerala from the Gulf.

The police said Gulf-based racketeers used modern “telecine machines” for converting the theatrical prints of new releases into digital form.

The top-quality digital prints are then smuggled into Kerala in laptop computers or portable hard discs. The movies are then copied on a large scale on DVDs and VCDs for sale in the black market.

Film industry sources said that producers had scarce control over theatrical prints of movies released in the Gulf.

In Kerala, film representatives are fiercely protective of the prints of new releases and they take away the reels containing key sequences after late-night shows to ensure that films are not illegally copied in entirety.

In the Gulf, theatrical prints are not so protected and copyright violators are known to bribe courier service agents and movie hall staff for getting their hands on the original reels.

Malayalam film producers often mark certain frames of the prints they distribute in an attempt to find out from which theatre they have been copied. Film exhibitors in some areas are now checking suspicious characters for handheld video cameras before allowing them into theatres.

Video piracy, if unchecked, can make the nearly Rs.200-crore Malayalam movie industry unsustainable. The industry provides direct and indirect employment to nearly 25,000 people, including artistes and technicians.

Lack of business, partly due to cable television and easy availability of pirated VCDs and DVDs, has forced the closure of nearly 700 movie halls in Kerala.

Several young computer and Internet hobbyists are turning to video piracy for earning a quick income. The film industry is trying to combat this trend by simultaneously releasing films in rural and urban centres.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Bar Association to intensify stir for Bench
200 varieties of mango on display
‘Night patrolling a success’
Scan centres, doctors cautioned
Need to revive food economy of State
SSLC results on four web sites
Adivasis to take out Secretariat march
Law against monopolies unlikely
SEZ application of 18 IT firms blocked: Chandy
Support for High Court Bench agitation
Court nod to be sought for modernising fish market
Road rage on the rise
Port: Raghavan blames State
Piracy: religious leaders back police
Thiruvananthapuram today

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu