Music industry battles MP3 piracy

bangalore: the indian music industry has never had it this bad. apart from the worldwide recession, it also had to contend with piracy, which grabbed a major chunk of its sales __ a whopping 30 per cent. it has been a lone battle for the indian music industry (imi), an association of all big music houses __ sony, bmg crescendo, tips, venus, hmv, times, zee, among others __ against piracy, especially of the mp3 variety.the piracy has forced industry to slash prices by 30 per cent in the past few months. according to manoj rai of saregama hmv, mp3 piracy began last january, changing the entire market psychology. imi supervisor nagendra feels the police department has not treated the issue seriously. ``there is far too much dilly-dallying when it comes to launching raids on pirates.'' says imi coordinator i.v. patil, ``though we are former police officers, we are dependent on the police for conducting raids. the pirates gave a written assurance in august 2001 saying they would stop sales of mp3 cds and cassettes. they are yet to keep their word.'' the imi has its own informers. ``we get leads on pirates' activities, which we pass on to the police.'' the city crime branch (ccb) feels the industry must explore other ways to stop piracy. ``we, however, provide ample support to the imi during the raids,'' says ravindra prasad, dcp. since 1998, the imi has made 200 arrests, but none has been convicted. sources feel pirates bribe the police to keep them at bay. ``their network is so advanced that by the time information leaks out, they have enough time to shift goods elsewhere or close shop.'' acp krishnappa (crime), however, denies these charges. ``we have fully cooperated with the imi and it isn't a problem for mobile policemen to conduct raids.'' according to the copyright act of 1957, music piracy is a non-bailable offence punishable with six months to three years imprisonment and a fine of rs 50,000 to rs 2 lakh. it may be recalled that a raid on january 15 fetched 3,300 fake cds and other goods worth rs 8 lakh in bangalore. while one person was nabbed, the prime accused managed to give the slip. how they differ counterfeit cassettes inlay cards differ in quality, colour of printing. cassettes won't have name of the company on the leader tape. companies emboss their name on cassettes. this will be missing in counterfeit products. pirated cassettes name and address of persons who have made the sound recording will be missing. name and address of the owner of the copyright and year of publication will be missing. inlay card shows poor quality printing cassette may carry vague or unknown brand name a combination of titles belonging to different companies a compilation of `hit songs' from different albums under names such as `top ten' or `bollywood hits' etc. pirated cds source identified code (sid) is missing print on inlay card may be of poor quality