Fewer anti-piracy cases filed

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.