India Chose a Weird Way to Curb Piracy

[Ethan]

We’ve seen a few radical solutions to online piracy thus far, but India definitely topped all expectations: the Tamil Film Producer's Council announced that it may stop releasing all movies for a few months to give infringers nothing to pirate and thus force them out of business.

The India’s movie group held their general meeting to discuss piracy, where several solutions were offered but one came to the forefront. It was a complete boycott on releasing content for the nearest future: from three to six months at least.

The head of the movie group claimed that drastic measures were required, because all producers were suffering losses. They were asked for some time to call in all the parties concerned and try to reach a resolution that would suit everybody. As a result, the Tamil Film Producer's Council promised to establish a dedicated anti-piracy unit made of ex-police officers, and suggested that not releasing films at all may appear the best way to hit pirates. The logic is that piracy will automatically stop without content and the movie pirates will go out of business.

However, the decision hasn’t been finalized yet, though a resolution has been passed. Still, the group is going to discuss the idea with all the parties involved first and only then implement it.

On the other hand, the suggested release suspension may only make matters worse. One can’t deny that piracy has become a menace these days, but suspending releases is not a solution. The matter is that moviemakers today are struggling to find a suitable window to release their works, so halting the release will only make it worse. The statistics say that at least 3 Tamil movies are releasing in cinemas each week. Three months will make it 36 movies waiting for release, which after lifting the ban will battle it out with more movies for release.

In other words, it seems that a 3-month ban is gaining momentum, but other copyright holders saw a much better solution to the problem: for example, one of the local filmmakers suggested that releasing movies via DVD and VOD at a fair price can be the best option. The matter is that an original DVD of a new movie in India is $0.80, which makes pirated copies obsolete, especially considering the quality of pirated prints.

It would be very interesting to watch this ban, if it comes to pass, but it’s clear that pirates will still exist after it anyway.