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End of the road for piracy?
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Technology may soon prevent you from copying movies
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There's bad news for those who take pride in laying their hands on illegal copies of music albums and movies. If technology gurus have their way, soon you will not be able to download movies from the Internet or your television and turn them into CDs and DVDs. The new wave, which banks on HDMI or High-Definition Multimedia Interface, is protected with encryption, and can stem piracy in your living room.
A contrast to the television sets that use multiple cables for audio/video inputs and outputs, HDMI uses a single interface that is enabled encryption.
Explains Kandaswamy Bharathan, CEO, DLM Digital Studios, "Making digital films is the first step to check piracy. We are looking at the second stage. When your television is HDMI-enabled, you cannot copy films that are broadcast."
Leading manufacturers like Sony and Panasonic have already incorporated this technology in the U.S. "In India, we are talking to the Hindi, Tamil and Telugu film industries so that they can urge television companies to incorporate HDMI," says Kandaswamy.
If you wonder what is the urgency to stem piracy at home, here's why: "There is a huge increase in the number of people who watch movies at home. Apart from the spurt in DVD revenues, there's also the demand to release DVDs within a few weeks of a film's release. A lot of piracy occurs at the end-user level," says Rajan Varadarajan, director, marketing and development, Silicon Image.
The film fraternity might well be interested. Because, while the market for Telugu films has grown abroad, there's a dent in revenues thanks to techies who download movies from the Internet. Today, with very few filmmakers making digital movies that eliminate film negatives, markers are placed on film prints to track down piracy. HDMI might be a boon, but there are possibilities of protests as well. "Those who use education content may not welcome this move. So, we will wait for the Government's regulations," adds Kandaswamy.
Going Digital
Digital cinema is an answer to the problem of piracy. Here's a look at some key players who've gone digital
* Mahesh Manjrekar's Vaah Life Ho To Aisi, was shot using high-definition technology.
* P. C. Sreeram shot his Tamil film Vaanam Vasappadum using a high-definition digital film.
* Chennai-based filmmaker Anita Udeep's English film, Knock Knock, I Want to Marry, targeted at multiplexes, was a digital film.
SANGEETHA DEVI. K
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