Seminar on piracy calls for stern action

The video piracy is hampering the interests of the film industry to a large extent. Four organizations namely - Andhra Pradesh Police Academy (APPA), Directors of Prosecutors, Film Chamber of Commerce and Motion Pictures Association - together organized a seminar to discuss the steps to be taken to arrest the video /audio piracy. Speaking on the occasion APPA director Gopinatha Reddy says, 'Over 25 lakh people are getting director or indirect employment due to the film industry. Piracy is hampering the financial interests of all these people. There is a need to establish research units to investigate how this piracy is generating.' Producer Gunnam Gangaraju says, 'When some thieves are robbing the people, everyone start shouting and take it seriously. But when the piracy is eating away the profits of the producers, the so called people's representatives are not taking it seriously. Why this bias?' Film Chamber president Viswanath bemoaned that 'The Film Chamber had instituted an anti-video piracy cell with 52 retired police officials. We have registered over 3,000 cases. But punishment was given in only eight cases.' Producer D Ramanaidu says, 'At least 1,300 piracy cases were registered in the past eight months. This proves how hard it is hitting the film industry adversely. If the government could take stern action the accused who were found guilty of piracy, the others would be afraid of committing a similar mistake. So the government should take the issue seriously.' CC Reddy says, 'Several discussions, seminars were held on video piracy but there is no use. The film industry should strive hard to arrest the piracy in strict terms. Then only we can avoid video piracy.' Justice Chalameswar, who attended the programme as chief guest, says, 'When a case on video piracy is being referred to the court, the complainants are making several mistakes. If the Film Chamber takes some strict measures, it would be possible to punish the guilty.' Prosecutions director Bhaskar says, 'Not only the film industry, but the government also losing lakhs of rupees due to this video piracy. There should be a deep introspection whether there were any loopholes in the statute itself regarding the piracy cases. It should be discussed how the mistakes are being occurred while registering the cases itself.' Director K Raghavendra Rao, critic and journalist Gudipudi Srihari and others attended.