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This is an archive article published on April 17, 2009

Pirate Dawood

The dreaded Dawood Ibrahim was invoked by US Congressmen Ed Royce and Howard Berman,and described as the godfather of godfathers...

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The dreaded Dawood Ibrahim was invoked by US Congressmen Ed Royce and Howard Berman,and described as the godfather of godfathers,Al-Qaeda and LeT bankroller,and arch-enemy of Hollywood and Bollywood for his connections with movie piracy. They even pointed to Slumdog Millionaires dark revelations to drive home their point about organised crime in India.

Certainly,film piracy is rampant in India and copyright protection lax on the other hand,this kind of industry good,pirates bad narrative ignores much of the social context of piracy. Like it or not,today digital media disrupts the industrys careful plans to stagger release,give it away bit by bit across geographical regions to wring maximum profit from each property attached to a film music rights,DVD rights,etc,and piracy thrives on this lag.

Then again,bootlegged DVDs and internet downloads have made it possible to watch films that are simply not legally available in India. Any movie released in India,in the theatre or on DVD,has to pass an elaborate censor certification process and much of world cinema just does not make it to the legit DVD market; and a legit DVD could cost anything from Rs 200 to Rs 600. Instead of just bemoaning piracy,it makes sense to work out creative,profitable distribution systems for a world where instant digital transmission is a given. Now there are DVD rental services in India,and other creditable legal alternatives like the Moser Baer initiative that sells DVDs of world cinema for as little as Rs 35. These are good,above-board compromises. So instead of treating fans as felons,it makes more sense for the industry to remodel its own systems.

 

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