SEPT 16: A high level interactive meeting between Arun Jaitley, Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Deputy Chief Minister Chaghan Bhujbal, accompanied by top officials of the I & B Ministry and State Government on one side and film producers, distributors and exhibitors on the other was held at Sahyadri to find out ways and means on how to curb the piracy in the wake of amdendment to the Cable Network Regulation Rules 1994 whereby it prohibits cable operators from showing films. Arun Jaitley assured the film folks that the amendment will serve as deterent to the cable operators from showing films for which they had no copyright. The 1994 cable Bill had not provided the clause that cable operators have to obtain copyright to show films and or else face a 2 year sentence and fine. "Before the amendment was introduced, the film industry was suffering because of piracy. Producers were helpless when pirated films were shown on cable all over the country as they were not in a position to stop the menace. I also held a meeting with cable operators who confessed that they were showing films illegally because of competition between the networks and because of the demand of the cable subscribers. Therefore it was felt that an amendment was needed whereby cable networks showed only films for which they had a copyright. Under Section 5 of the programme code, no film can be shown without a copyright.The powers to raid were given only to the district magistrate, sub-district magistrate and police commmissioners in order to ensure that the low level officers do not harass the cable operators unnecessarily. They have also authority to seize the equipment under Section 16. For the first crime, violation faces 2 years of sentence and Rs.1,000.Several leders of the film industry including Yash Chopra, Pahlaj Nihalani, Tilak Raj Magan, and N N Sippy wondered if effective implementation would be possible since it was in the hands of the police. Arun Jaitley however said that cable operators had met him after the amendments were made urging him to ask producers to sell cable rights officially so that they could carry on their business.
