Jail for watching King Kong at home?

Clifton, Karachi Dec 1, 2005: It is dusk in this upmarket shopping area, which is a bit like a blend of Linking Road and Breach Candy in Mumbai. As I head for a particular notorious shop here, the smell of kebabs roasting merges with perfume and beggars with performing monkeys. People acknowledge my presence with great warmth as I head to a large one-storied shop run by what I can only describe as boys, the likes of whom you see around Durgas in Mumbai selling you juice.

This is the piracy haven of Karachi. Here Satyajit Ray sits side by side with Francois Truffaut, Wong Kar Wai and No Entry from Bollywood. I am looking for some old classics of Noor Jehan, to fuel the inexhaustible musical needs of my film company, when I stumble across this rare documentary, The Power of Nightmares, by the world- famous documentary film-maker Adam Curtis, which I have been looking for in various countries for a while. Unable to find it elsewhere, I buy it here for Rs 70. But as I head back through the dusty roads I feel pangs of discomfort as I realise that by making this purchase I have contributed to this global multi-billion dollar industry of film piracy, and in effect to the world of organised crime.

This is when it hits me…I am driving through the area of Clifton, the abode of Dawood Ibrahim, the infamous Indian mobster, who controls organised crime in South Asia today. It is rumoured that it is, in fact, he who is one of the most important forces of film piracy in South Asia.

According to a recent study conducted by the Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA), the association has discovered that there is a deepening link between organised crime and piracy. DVD/VCD/CD pirates are not merely a product of market forces and free enterprise. Governments in Asia have recently found out that as they stepped up their Intellectual Property Right Protection effo-rts, they began to lock horns with formidable criminal forces. This study says that piracy has funded some of Asia?s most notorious criminals, and it is only getting bigger and bigger day by day.

It is said that while the world markets began to integrate in the 1990s, it not only brought King Kong to you on the same day that it released in the United States, but also had a darker side. With globalisation, came the explosion of both traditional organised crimes and optical disc piracy in Asia. Today, the wholesale intellectual property theft practiced by organised criminal gangs with global networks is plundering the worlds creativity.

Ever since man stepped into the digital wonderland, criminals are having a field day. Hollywood, which has recently released King Kong, in the US and 36 international territories simultaneously to deal with piracy, is spending huge amounts of money to see that piracy of this product is prevented.

Paramount, which has released 231 prints of King Kong in India, in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, are keeping a hawk-like vigil on the potential pirateers over here.

However, they privately concede that all it takes is one person who records the film in the cinema hall on his digital camera and downloads it through a cyber cafe to an un-known hub somewhere in Asia, from where duplication explodes.

Historically, illegal drug trafficking has been one of the most profitable criminal enterprises. Today, criminals recognise that film piracy is safer and more profitable. According to the MPAA study, intellectual property theft now generates revenues totaling $512 billion a year, which is 7% of world trade. According to this report, in major cities across North America and Europe, the mark up on an average DVD from manufacture to retail is over 1150%! This outpaces the profitability of both heroin and cocaine.

What is important to know is that the average penalty for copyright infringement, if it is prosecuted at all, is one-fifth of the prison term and one -fiftieth of the fine handed out to the average narcotics trafficker. Even here in India, a person caught for piracy is let out on bail within an hour. There is hardly any punitive action taken in our country against these pirates.

India is on the threshold of an entertainment explosion. The theft of its products diminishes not only the individual producers? revenue, but also a huge chunk of its national wealth. The need of the hour is to sensitise not only the government, but also the trade with the magnitude of the problem. The critical question that remains is whether or not governments will act quick enough to turn the tide against these criminal organisations, which are on a roll world over.

It is also imperative that through public interest messages we communicate to the people at large that by buying into piracy they are contributing to fund raising activities of criminals, who then fund their businesses of drugs and human trafficking, not to mention the support of terrorist networks!

It is time that we prevail upon the government of the day to allocate resources to fight this menace just like they have allocated huge chunks of money to fight the illegal drug racket and other criminal activities. Our response to this threat must be every bit as vigorous and as aggressive as our response to terrorism, violent crime, drugs and corruption. Maybe, only when you make buying or renting pirated copies of DVDs and CDs an act liable for prosecution, will this menace really begin to be tamed.

There is no way an average Indian would want to go to jail just for watching King Kong at home!

?The writer is a Mumbai-based film maker