By IANS
Pune : The Indian Music Industry (IMI), which represents 140 music companies across the country, has roped in the police to tackle piracy that has seen it losing Rs.12 billion annually.
A day-long training programme was held Monday for 100 Pune police officers to educate them about protection of the country’s intellectual property rights and the importance of creating awareness about copyright laws among police officials.
For the law enforcers, the latest danger is the piracy of music through mobile phone chips, more than through compact discs and audio cassettes.
President of IMI V.J. Lazarus said: “Mobile phone piracy is spreading very fast, a small chip can record eight hours of music as against an MP3 player which can record 30 to 40 songs.”
The IMI wants the music industry to curb piracy so that the Indian music industry does not go the Pakistani or Bangladeshi way where lack of regulations have ruined the music industry completely, an official said.
Secretary General of the IMI Savio D’Souza, addressing the press conference, said: “Out of 10,000 piracy cases reported till now, 1,200 convictions were made.”
Training police officers in Intellectual Property (IP) has been very helpful, the IMI said.
Last year, the IMI with the assistance of the police conducted over 3,000 raids, which were more than 50 percent of all intellectual property rights cases registered in India.
IMI has also been in touch with the prosecution machinery and this has helped in ironing out deficiencies in investigation and prosecution of cases.
“It is because of the close coordination of the police and prosecution machinery that a court in Delhi sealed the biggest CD unit indulging in piracy. The plant was worth Rs.25 crores (Rs.250 million) when it was sealed. IMI is ranked the 6th most effective anti-piracy team in the world. Last year, Sony Playstation also became a member of IMI to fight piracy in gaming industry,” said D’Souza.