India must take steps to tackle piracy: IIPA chief

NEW DELHI: India should, through effective legal remedies, strengthen its enforcement mechanism to tackle the growing menace of optical and Internet piracy since it is assuming alarming proportions, Eric Smith, president of the International Intellectual Property Alliance, said on Tuesday.
"Today a large number of pirated compact dics come into India via Pakistan. Similarly, a large number of southeast Asian countries including Malaysia and Taiwan are routing their pirated CDs into India. This is hurting the local industry making it imperative for the government to adopt ways to tackle the menace," Smith said on the sidelines of a seminar on IPRs here.
"While India is making amendments in its copyright laws there are certain areas which need to be strengthened. The US passed laws relating to the Internet four years ago and India can benefit from the US experience in this area," he said.
With piracy concentrated mostly in cities, the system of having police cells in India needs to be worked upon and the judicial system which is too slow and cumbersome needs to be made more effective, he said.
Asked about the extent of revenue loss occurring on account of piracy, Smith said, "The amount is phenomenal since just the loss of US copyright companies in India in motion pictures and software business application alone amounts to over $345 million."
According to an analysis on piracy rates in Asia conducted by IIPA in 2002, piracy rates in India are highest for videogames at 90 per cent followed by business software at 69 per cent. Movies and records and music had piracy rates of 60 and 40 per cent.
According to the IIPA, piracy rates have reached high proportions this year in countries like China, which has a 92 per cent piracy rate in videogames, 93 per cent piracy rate in business software, 90 per cent piracy rate in records and music and 88 per cent piracy rate in movies.
A study conducted by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in 1997 said that the copyright industry in India accounted for over five per cent of the GDP. The copyright industry in the US accounts for five per cent of the GDP at $535 billion.
"Piracy is a global threat and a threat to the economic growth and cultural development in Asia," Smith said, adding that today, between five and seven per cent of international trade is in pirated and counterfeit products.
He said, according to IIPA estimates, average piracy rates in Asia exceeded 50 per cent of the market for all copyrighted products combined.
A case study of Taiwan revealed that piracy levels had declined from close to 99 per cent in movies in 1984 to around 10 per cent in 1997 on account of more effective enforcement and stricter laws, high fines and jail terms.
However, in 2001, piracy rates for Taiwan in videogames, movies, music and business software surged again on account of a sharp increase in the optical media piracy, a growing problem for countries like India.
Smith said failure to fight piracy would lead to lower incomes for the creators, discourage FDI, transfer of technology as also loss of government revenue.