Music piracy takes new avatar 'mobile chip piracy'

NEW DELHI: With India crossing hundred million mobile subscribers and approximately 25-30 per cent of the phone models in the market capable of music transfer, music piracy has assumed a new avatar- Mobile Piracy.

"The total loss to music industry due to piracy is around 600-700 crores per year. The size of the music market on mobile phones is estimated to be Rs 400 crore that includes products like ringtones, full song mobile downloads, music videos," says Savio DSouza, Secretary-General, Indian Music Industry (IMI).

He adds, "At present, there are more than 150 million mobile users in the country and the figure is increasing by 10 per cent annually. If 10 per cent users download one song per year for Rs 10, the size of the market is more than Rs 15 crore," he adds.

Experts point out that the Mobile chip piracy is a technique by which digitised music can be easily copied from any storage device like computer hard disc or USB drive, a mobile phone into the built in memory of another mobile phone or on memory cards or chips.

Vijay Lazarus, President, IMI, says that the total loss to music industry due to mobile chip piracy is around 35-40 crore.

"Currently only Tamil Nadu and Kerala have an anti-piracy wing. It is time the government, both the centre and the state introduce necessary reforms and set up a audio-video anti-piracy wing. We want govt to levy heavy fines and increase the minimum prison sentence of six months to one year to the music pirates and bring the crime under Goonda Act," he adds.