Maryam Farooqui Moneycontrol News
It is so much easier and cheaper to get access to pirated versions of new films which can be downloaded or shared in a matter of few minutes and people have to shell out a lot less for the same. However, it is the film industry that feels the pinch of this piracy menace, resulting in loss of revenues.
To negate this threat, Yash Raj Films has filed John Doe suit before Madras High Court to prevent piracy of its new release Hichki, starring Rani Mukherjee. The makers will be able to take series of action against piracy and any person or entity indulging in the piracy of the film.
What is John Doe lawsuit?
In simple terms, John Doe means that when a producer is anticipating large scale piracy a lawsuit is filed but when the suit is filed the plaintiff does not know who may cause infringement of his/her material. The nature of this order is called John Doe when the producer would not know the identity of the person who would cause the breach but has a reasonable doubt of violation of law.
The menace of piracy
The government in its efforts to put a stop to piracy launched a campaign in collaboration with the Producers Guild of India on anti-piracy at the National Conference on ‘Counterfeiting and Role of Enforcement Agencies’. Minister of Commerce and Industry, Suresh Prabhu recently tweeted a video where actor Vidya Balan talks about anti-piracy and how people can help put an end to it.
Piracy has caused severe revenue leakage to the tune of 10-30 per cent of overall revenues for the segment, according to a Ficci-EY report on media and entertainment sector. Nation’s fast paced adoption of internet and affordable data plans have further enabled the viewers to wait for the film and watch it on their mobile screen, the report adds.
Despite being fully digitised, the Indian film segment is grappled with the menace of piracy which has been rampant in the market. The entire value chain is affected under such dynamics where the films are made available within hours of its theatrical release. High content prices, low income level and cheaper internet infrastructure are the major factors leading to content piracy. In some of the cases, the films have leaked before their release dates as well. Camcording in cinema halls is one of the major sources of leakage as over 90 per cent of new release titles originate from cinemas.
The other reason for the leakage of content online is the official release of the films in other geographies prior to their Friday release in Indian market for example UAE where films are released a day prior to their Friday release in India.
There have been several steps taken by the government and different industry association have come together to work on the piracy menace. The Indian copyright law has provisions for digital right management for protection of the content on digital media environment. There have been multiple cases of getting John Doe orders from the High Court to prevent access of content to websites suspected of hosting pirated content.
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