[Commons-Law] Karnataka Bill to curb piracy likely in budget session

[Pranesh Prakash]

>From the Hindu.
Snippet:
The Tamil Nadu Act views that video piracy “... is an act prejudicial
to the maintenance of public order.”

The then N. Dharam Singh government had stated that the objective of
the enactment of a similar Act in Karnataka was to eradicate the video
piracy menace and put the film industry on the revival path.

It had promised the industry that the existing anti-piracy laws would
be brought within the purview of the Goonda Act. But the promise was
not fulfilled even by the H.D. Kumaraswamy government.

--
This juxtaposes really well with the last article sent to this list,
in which B.R. Jayaramaraje Urs (Secretary, Kannada and Culture) blamed
the film industry for "not responding to public needs on the quality
front", despite receiving enormous sops for "over four decades".

Regards,
Pranesh

Date:19/02/2009
URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/02/19/stories/2009021953760400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore
Bill to curb film piracy likely in budget session

K.N. Venkatasubba Rao

Film industry had long been pleading for a tough law
Industry is said to have lost Rs. 250 crore in nine years

Bangalore: The long-pending Bill to curb piracy of Kannada cinemas and
songs is likely to become a reality during the budget session of the
State Legislature, according to sources in Kannada cinema industry.

Since 2004, the industry had been pleading to the Government to enact
a law similar to the one in Tamil Nadu on “exhibition of films on the
television network through video cassette recorders and cable
television network”.

The industry had been losing huge amounts of money in the absence of a
stringent law that could contain illegal trade at the cost of
producers and distributors.
Helplessness

The reported attack on some CD and DVD sellers in the city by some
producers recently was only an “expression of their helplessness”.

The Kannada film industry had incurred a loss of over Rs. 250 crore
through video and audio piracy in the last nine years.

However, the incident has drawn the Government’s attention towards the
issue again, thanks to police intervention, sources said.

In 2005, the Dharam Singh Government had promised the industry that it
would introduce a Bill at an appropriate time for curbing audio-video
piracy.
Tamil Nadu Act

The then Minister for Information and Publicity, B. Shivaram, had said
that the Karnataka Government had been thinking of formulating a Bill
on the lines of a legislation, which was an amendment to an earlier
Act, introduced by the Tamil Nadu Government.

The Tamil Nadu Act views that video piracy “... is an act prejudicial
to the maintenance of public order.”

The Tamil Nadu Government had brought an amendment to its “Prevention
of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Drug-offenders, and
Forest-offenders, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders and Slum-grabbers
Act 1982” to enable authorities to detain any video pirate under the
said Act.

Promise not kept
The then N. Dharam Singh government had stated that the objective of
the enactment of a similar Act in Karnataka was to eradicate the video
piracy menace and put the film industry on the revival path.

It had promised the industry that the existing anti-piracy laws would
be brought within the purview of the Goonda Act. But the promise was
not fulfilled even by the H.D. Kumaraswamy government.

© Copyright 2000 - 2008 The Hindu


-- 
Pranesh Prakash
Programme Manager
Centre for Internet and Society
W: http://cis-india.org | T: +91 80 40926283