MUMBAI: The Indian Music Industry (IMI), the umbrella organization of the music industry that is responsible for combating Piracy in India, obtained Mandatory Injunction Orders from the Calcutta High Court (dated 27 January, 6 February, 1 March & 2 March) directing 387 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block 104 Music Copyright Infringing websites within 36 hours of the date of the intimation.
This unprecedented initiative was a result of an exhaustive petition filed by IMI and its constituencies under CPC Order 1 Rule VIII against the identified ISPs.
Commenting on the achievement, IMI president Vijay Lazarus said, “Piracy is an impending problem for India’s media and entertainment industry, causing losses of about Rs.20,000 Crores every year due to copyright infringement. Recent estimates suggest that India’s Digital Music Market is in the range of Rs.5000 Crores but only 7% of it is legitimate. We hope that such a move will help curb piracy and go a long way in supporting original music and its creators.
The Court order also serves Perpetual Injunction restraining ISP’s and each one of them in or their officers – employees, agents, servants and all others acting on their behalf and in active concert or participation with them or any of them from reproducing, adopting, distributing, communicating, transmitting, disseminating or displaying in any manner from infringing and/or causing to be infringed the copyright in sound recordings belonging to the PPL/IMI Plaintiff Member Companies.
Commenting on this initiative, IMI secretary general Savio D’Souza said, “It has long been the case that enforcing rights against online infringers have been difficult owing to the inherent nature of the worldwide web but IMI through its consistent and intensive operations have managed to obtain court orders prohibiting some prominent illegal music websites to stop operation within 36 hours of intimation. IMI will continue to work towards combating piracy at each level to reduce the loss of revenue currently faced by the music industry’’.
The Court has directed the ISPs to use the following 3 methods, or any other method to block access to the infringing websites – 1. DSN blocking, 2. IP Address blocking using routers, 3. DPI-based URL blocking using ACLs on NMS.
Role of DoT & TRAI:
The Government of India Ministry of Communication & IT: Department of Telecommunications [DoT] had issued a guideline dated August 24, 2007 bearing no. 820-1/2006-LR for grant of license for Internet Services on non-exclusive basis with immediate effect in respect of the infringement of copy right as follows:
Point No. 27 “Flow of obscene, objectionable, unauthorized or any other content infringing copy-rights, intellectual property right and international & domestic Cyber laws in any form over the ISP’s network is not permitted and the ISP is supposed to take such measures as to prevent it. Any damages/claims arising out of default on the part of the licensee in this respect shall be the sole responsibility of the licensee [i.e. ISP]”
On 11th April, 2011 Government of India issued a notification mandating that; an Internet Service Provider [ISP] like other intermediaries should protect & preserve copyright of other persons and remove any violative material from the internet so that the same is not circulated without license or authority.
List of Legitimate sites in India: Saregama, Nokia Music, Flipkart, Cyworld, 7digital, Gaana and more.
Names of ISPs: Bharti Airtel Ltd., Vodafone India Ltd., Dishnet Wireless Ltd., Reliance Wimax Ltd., Hathway Cable & Datacom Pvt. Ltd
Hughes Communications India Limited, Tata Teleservices Ltd, Reliance Communications Infrastructure Ltd., Wipro Ltd., Sify Technologies Ltd.
BG Broadband India Pvt. Ltd + 376 other ISPs.