Recently, The Delhi High Court directed the suspension of Whatsapp Accounts involved in Piracy case of movie “Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai” of Salman Khan in a commercial suit filed by “ZEE 5” production house which has the copyright of the film. The movie was released on 13th May, 2021 on the “Zee 5”, an online portal for public viewing on a pay-per view basis. It has been alleged in the suit that after movie release, several pirated copies of the movie were circulated on the social-media platforms including whatsapp. The High Court of Delhi has not decided the case yet.
The piracy of the movies is not something new. Indian Film Industry has been its victim since a long time. But, with the enhanced use of technology in today’s world, the extent of this illegal activity has increased a lot. As per Section 2(m)(ii) of the Copyright Act, 1957 (hereinafter referred to as Act), an infringing copy (pirated copy) in relation to a cinematograph film means a copy of the film made on any medium by any means. The Producer of the movie takes the copyright on its original work before the movie is made public to secure his rights. Section 14(d) of the Act provides that in case of cinematograph, copyright means the exclusive right:
- to make a copy of the film, including—
- a photograph of any image forming part thereof; or
- storing of it in any medium by electronic or other means;
- to sell or give on commercial rental or offer for sale or for such rental, any copy of the film.
- to communicate the film to the public;
The copyright gets infringed when a person, who is not a copyright-holder or his assignee, does any act which only the copyright-holder has the exclusive right to do and affect prejudicially the copyright-holder. However, a fair dealing with any work for the purpose of private or personal use including research; criticism or review, whether of that work or any other work; the reporting of current events and current affairs, including the reporting of a lecture delivered in public does not amounts to infringement of copyright. For the infringement of copyright, the owner of the copyright has the civil remedies like injunction, damages, rendition of accounts etc. as well as the right to take criminal action against the accused of copyright infringement which involves the punishment of minimum imprisonment for a term of 6 months which may extend to 3 years and fine of Rs. 50000 which may extend to Rs. 2,00,000. In case of repeated offender, the minimum imprisonment is 1 year and minimum fine leviable is Rs. 1,00,000.
There is a need of strict action against the persons committing offence of Piracy as this activity also results in the loss of State revenue to be earned from the sale of these movies. A bill titled Cinematograph Amendment Bill, 2019 was introduced in Rajya Sabha which involved the maximum punishment as Rs. 10 lakh for the offence of piracy but could not be passed. The standing committee which gave report upon the aforesaid bill even recommended for an enhanced fine of 5% to 10% of the audited gross production cost. Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee has also recommended for a fine ranging between 5 lakh to 25 lakh.
Even the infringed copies also get circulated to the other parts of the world leading to immense loss to the industry. As per the report of FICCI in 2018 which mentioned an extract from the Irdeto Global Consumer Piracy Threat Report, Media and entertainment sector loses around US$2.8 billion due to online piracy annually. Considering these facts, this is the high time for the action as the film Industry in India can only flourish when iniquitous activity of piracy is brought to standstill.
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