‘Free’ hello tunes ring in trouble for vendors

At a time when ringtones and caller tunes have become increasingly popular, mobile phone vendors across the country have been fleecing customers by selling ringtones that are available on the Internet for free.

Two of them put behind bars for selling downloaded ringtones

At a time when ringtones and caller tunes have become increasingly popular, mobile phone vendors across the country have been fleecing customers by selling ringtones that are available on the Internet for free.

The police raided three mobile phone shops after a representative of a Mumbai-based copyright consulting firm filed a complaint with the Sayajigunj police station on Friday. After raiding the shops, the police found that the shopkeepers had been downloading free ringtones from the Internet and selling them at Rs 50 apiece to customers, without paying any royalty to the film company or the website.

Story continues below this ad

Sub-Inspector A D Parmar said, the complainant, Manish Modi from Visions Consulting Company, received complaints from various music recording companies in Mumbai. Kishore Jaiswani and Sadiq Sheikh, the two accused vendors at Belbaag Shopping Centre, had been charging Rs 50 per ringtone. Two computers worth Rs 47,000 were also seized from the shops.

Modi said the network of illegal distribution of ringtones is rampant across India. “After conducting several raids with the police in Mumbai, we found that the ringtones were sold through Bluetooth for anything between Rs 20 and 50,” he said. Modi refused to divulge details of his clients.

The police said that most of the ringtones were from recent movies such as Dostana and Dil Kabbadi. The accused persons have been booked under the Copyright Act. On Friday evening, the accused secured their bail.