The State Government has set up a Telangana Intellectual Property Crime Unit (TIPCU) under the cyber crime wing of the CID to deal with complaints pertaining to online piracy especially those indulging in illegal download and spread of movies.
US Ambassador to India Richard Rahul Verma and IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao were among the host of dignitaries present to officially launch the unit, said to be first in the country, here on Friday.
The TIPC will help in blocking such sites, identify the perpetrators and pursue action.
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Hailing the move, Mr. Verma said it is a strong indication of the Telangana Government’s intention to act strongly against transgressions into the Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs). Patent copyrights and trademark copyrights too are important. The US Government is ready to help the Indian Government in building a strong IPR regime, he said, calling for protecting India’s powerful cultural messengers, films.
Mr. Rama Rao said the formation of TIPCU was to send a strong message against piracy. “We are working on methods to control illegal online activities, including child pornography. We wish to take support from other nations like the US and Europe to control piracy,” he said. Piracy instances had come down from January ever since the government crackdown began, he claimed.
Rajkumar Akella of the Telangana Film Chamber of Commerce in a presentation claimed that there were 14,000 sites and 89,000 illegal downloads of the movies causing loss in millions of rupees.
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Noted producer D. Suresh Babu said the film industry has been plagued with piracy starting from copying prints, VHS tapes, DVDs and online – “always a losing war for us”.
“A movie is out in five seconds of its release causing losses to everybody not just the producer but also the workmen on the sets as it loses business fast,” he said, adding that the number of movie screens had come down to 1,700 from 3,000 due to rampant piracy.
Udtha Punjab director Abhishek Chaubey recalled that all the years of research in making the film, shooting, post-production and later fight with the Censor Board all came to naught when they realised the print was leaked online the day it got released. Principal Secretary – Home, Rajiv Trivedi, Police Commissioners of Hyderabad and Cyberabad - M. Mahender Reddy & C.V. Anand, and others were present.