Piracy: The Threat & Ways Film Industry Attempts To Tackle The Issue

Even after the efforts of cybercrime, police and media persons, piracy websites including Tamilrockers continue to be an inevitable force in the new digital age.

Movie played through a projector

Source : Pixabay

Chennai: Just as movie buffs were awaiting the release of Kamal Haasan's 'Vikram' and Akshay Kumar's 'Samrat Prithviraj' in the cinemas, there were also thousands of others who were awaiting the release of the movies on piracy websites including Tamilrockers, Telegram, Tamilgun and Tamil MV among others.

In this new digital age, piracy has become rampant. According to Muso, a piracy insight company, the visit to movie-piracy sites has increased by 42.5% in the first quarter of 2022 as against the first quarter of 2021, said a report on Business Insider.

As a result, piracy has become a serious threat to the film industry as it makes all new movies available on the site for free within hours of its release. It also poses difficulty for the film industry which is already struggling to come to terms with the post pandemic business model and competition with OTT platforms.

Against this backdrop, Bismi, a senior journalist said, the film industry is not making eradication of piracy a priority. Hence, they can never put an end to the issue at the earliest, he ended. 

Yet, the stakeholders of the film industry are committed to curb piracy-related issues. 

The Role Of Courts

On May 26, Madras High Court ordered 29 internet service providers to stop the unauthorised screening of Kamal Haasan's 'Vikram' through 1,300 piracy sites. 

The court issued the order based on the affidavit filed by R Murali Krishnan of Raaj Kamal Films International who said that over 1300 websites are capable of uploading or enabling a third party to copy or display the film through 29 IPS.

However, despite the court order, the movie 'Vikram' was released by piracy websites. 

On other hand, activists and producers did not just stop with knocking on the doors of the court for justice but have also filed complaints with the police.

The Role Of Police

The Disney Star India Private Limited, Bengaluru filed a complaint against four piracy websites accusing them of illegally releasing its content.

The four platforms were Tamilrockers, Tamil MV, Tamil Blasters and Pika Show.

Following the complaint, the police filed a case under Section 420 of The Indian Penal Code, Section 66 of the IT act and Section 63 &65 of The Copyright Act.

The piracy websites have not just become a threat to the film industry but also to the content on television and OTT platforms that air web series. The complaint by Disney Star India is an example to such threat.

In another case on May 26, 2022, Maharashtra cyber police arrested a mobile application developer since he developed an app using which a gang of people reportedly stole content from paid channels and played it for free on their apps. The designated mobile app soon created huge losses for original content creators.

The cyber police arrested Sunbbajan Kayet of West Bengal. He was also the third person to be arrested in cyber fraud case in Mumbai.

In Chennai, several producers and moviemakers have moved the police demanding action against the culprits. Yet, the complainants await a crackdown on the accused.

(With inputs from ABP Nadu — It is a Tamil platform of ABP News. For more news, commentary and latest happenings from Tamil Nadu, follow https://tamil.abplive.com/)