Tollywood, Hollywood signs MoU on anti-piracy

Hyderabad: The Tollywood and Hollywood on Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding on anti-piracy in the presence of Chief Minister Mr N Kiran Kumar Reddy at the latter's camp office.

Mr Bike Robinson, Global Enforcement Officer, Motion Pictures Association (MPA) and Mr Edward Neubronner, Regional Operations Director, MPA have signed the MoU to work jointly with the A.P. Film Chamber of Commerce and Anti Video Piracy Cell on Intellectual Property Rights issue.

Officials from the Consulate General, US Consulate were present. This is the first time that such an MoU was signed with Hollywood in India.

Motion Pictures Association is a consortium of all the major Hollywood studios like Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney, Sony, Paramount and Universal.

Andhra Pradesh is the first State in India to have an exclusive Court for the trial of video piracy cases. Andhra Pradesh is also the first State to introduce compulsory licensing system to video stores to regulate the sale of home video products. Andhra Pradesh is the first to create a separate video piracy review committee at the district level.

According to a CMO release, video piracy is the biggest problem all over the world. Hundreds of millions of dollars are lost due to instant piracy.

Government of Andhra Pradesh supplied anti-piracy kits to the producers, conducted sting operations all over the State. Additional DGP has been nominated as the nodal officer to control the video piracy.

It is also to be noted that piracy is not only an economic offence, but leads to terrorist activities also. The Telugu Film Industry thanked the State Government for all the stringent measures initiated to prevent video piracy.

The Chief Minister said that the MoU is a good beginning and it was signed on an auspicious day which is good for the State, the country and the film industry as a whole. DGP Mr Dinesh Reddy, film producer D Suresh Babu and others from the film industry were also present on the occasion.

As per the estimates, the Telugu Film Industry lost about Rs 338 crores in 2010 due to Internet Piracy alone. An alarming issue is the growth rate of internet piracy which is about 65 per cent per annum.

The losses due to physical piracy are much larger than these as the Internet penetration in Andhra Pradesh is only 9.5 per cent.

The Present proposals include Greater allround awareness on Intellectual Property Rights, Better enforcement of anti piracy provisions, Examining the model of UK in tackling the uploaders and downloaders at regular intervals.

Bringing in camcording and online piracy legislations to suite the digital era and Putting Standard Operation Procedure in place to ensure better conviction rate.

Other proposals include Awards for Excellence in IPR protection initiatives jointly presented by Hollywood (MPA) and Telugu Film Industry, Best Citizen, Best Journalist, Best Film Fraternity Member (Theatre Owner/Cast/Crew Member/Edit Suite Member) etc., Best Enforcement Agency Member, Best Youth Icon and Best Academic Institution/Organisation.