Director Cheran on Friday lodged a complaint with the Superintendent of Police (North) N. Ravikumar, seeking criminal action against four local cable television channels which had telecast the pirated version of his movie JK Enum Nanbanin Vaazhkai.
Mr. Cheran said the movie was released on March 6 in the form of CDs through the Cinema to Home (C2H) network. He said around 65 dealers in Puducherry had invested Rs. 20 lakh to sell the CDs of the film.
However, a few local channels in the city had already telecast the movie which had now caused serious loss to the distributors and dealers. The distributors had recorded the footage of the movie telecast in the local channels.
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“This is a clear case of theft of copyright. Though complaints have been lodged against the concerned channels, the police prefer to remain calm and no First Information Report (FIR) has been registered yet,” he said.
He said that Tamil Nadu had launched a crackdown on video piracy and 18 cases were registered against seven local channels. Fines were also imposed on the channels for piracy.
However, there has been no concrete action on video piracy in Puducherry which is the main hub for pirated CDs. We are prepared to meet even the Chief Minister since video piracy is a serious crime infringing on the economic livelihood of the distributors.
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Pirated copies were mainly made in Puducherry besides Madurai and Tiruchi after the release of the movies. The police should initiate stringent action against the channels for screening the pirated version of the movie, he said.