India to US: Tech companies violating copyright law

NEW DELHI: For years, the US has blamed lax policing in countries such as India for a boost to piracy. But India has finally managed to get Washington to acknowledge piracy in its backyard after it submitted a list of over 600 websites, including Google, Amazon, Orkut and Flixter, accusing them of violating the copyright law.

After at least three years of debate, the issue finally found a mention in the joint statement issued after the completion of India-US Trade Policy Forum, which talked about cooperation of the shared interest in "creative industries". US trade representative Michael Froman said piracy issues were being faced by both Hollywood and Bollywood.

For years, Froman's predecessors had been blaming India for piracy of Hollywood movies, pointing to CDs and DVDs sold at street corners. But it took a while for the US to admit that even the Indian music industry faced privacy-related problems.

When Indian authorities first raised the issue in 2011, the US failed to acknowledge it and said the websites were being handled in other countries, such as Russia. It took some effort from the government to actually convince the US that the sites were being hosted in the US.

It wasn't until earlier this year that the American authorities finally acknowledged it after some heated exchanges. But so far, little action has been taken as US has at times cited the transfer of an official for a delay in initiating the process. "Earlier, they would always portray India and China as the big villains," said a source, who did not wish to be identified.

Officials, however, said the recognition of the problem is currently limited to the music industry. Although the film industry has spoken about the issue, it has failed to raise the pitch the way the music industry has done.

As a result, most of the sites listed by Indian authorities are related to the music industry.