 The music pirates in Europe, US and Pakistan have strong links with the terrorist organisations, said Julio Ribeiro, Chief Coordinator, Indian Phonograph Industry (IPR) and former police officer, in Chennai recently.
He was participating in a seminar organised by the Indian Music Industry (IMI) on 'Security Measures for Music'.
Ribeiro said the money raised from the illegal music market in CDs and cassettes of Tamil and Hindi film songs went into secret funding of organisations like the LTTE. Therefore, we have warned the Indian Government and organisations like Interpol to view this seriously and take steps to root out music piracy, he added.
The IMI in association with Holoflex have now taken a firm step towards curbing the menace by educating consumers on how to differentiate between an original CD from a pirated one, IMI President V J Lazarus said.
Holograms have been introduced by which the consumer can identify a genuine CD and ensure that he buys it in order to nurture the music industry, he said adding that the industry faced a huge crisis in view of the Rs 1,800 crore loss due to piracy in the last three years.
Over 4,000 persons had been prosecuted in the country for music piracy and there were 500 convictions, many of them in the south. However, the piracy went on unabated in view of high profit margins. The music industry was unable to compete with this illegal market as the pirates didn't have to incur huge overheads like payment to artistes, studios and other payments in order to obtain rights, he pointed out.
Tamil Nadu ADGP, Crime, Video Piracy Cell, C S Munzini, said action had been stepped up in Tamil Nadu, with nearly 250 convictions obtained in the state. Over 1,500 cases had been registered in the state in the last six months alone, he pointed out.
N oted Bharata Natyam danseuse Srinidhi Chidambaram and playback singer T Karthik appealed to the people to buy only genuine CDs and cassettes and to help put down music piracy which led to mass unemployment and also despair among artistes.
IMI Secretary-General Savio D'Souza and V Balachandran, head of IPR in south, said that out of 4.9 crore cassettes manufactured and sold every month in the country, nearly 1.6 crore were illegally manufactured.
Ajit Surana, representative of Holoflex, said his organisation had conducted several workshops to educate IMI's internal task force on how to identify IMI holograms. The hologram was tamper-proof and cannot be reproduced, he pointed out.
R Rangaraj
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Music piracy and terrorism
