THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Barring around half-a-dozen arrests in the sensational Premam piracy case, the anti-piracy wing has not netted any big fish due to the demise of video library culture, say experts.
Around 88 anti-piracy cases were registered in 2012. The number came down to around 70 by 2013 and dropped to around 50 last year, as per record.
The direct download of pirated contents from the sites has replaced CDs and become the primary source of movie viewers. The number of illegal CD vendors who used to get arrested also has come down.
“The number of convictions that happens in anti-piracy was low everywhere. Not fewer than 1,000 anti-piracy cases are annually registered in Tamil Nadu or Andhra which have thriving film industries. However, the actual number of convictions there would be not more than a dozen,” said an anti-piracy official.
As per experts, due to lack of rigid rules, punishment cannot be awarded to a layman who downloads the content for personal use.
“Since sharing of copyright content is a crime, those who upload the video or share it with others’ hard drive can be punished. However, with low expertise available with the police, those who upload movies using foreign servers remain out of bounds. In most cases, private entities’ help are needed to find such offenders,” said Mathew Chelayil, a cyber forensic expert.
