MUMBAI, March 21, 2017, At the session on ‘Decoding the pirate economy in interconnected world: From Noise to Action’ at FICCI FRAMES 2017, Mr. Brijesh Singh, Inspector General of Police (Cyber), Maharashtra Police, in a special address said that the Government of Maharashtra was creating a unit to specifically deal with issues of digital infringement of IP. He urged the industry to come forward for this initiative and was in favor of developing a PPP model.

 Mr. Singh said that Maharashtra would soon have its own Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) which would enable efficient and faster action on computer security incidents. Giving a clarion call to the industry, he added that it was time for stakeholders to collaborate with the enforcement agencies to combat piracy and counterfeiting.

 

Alluding to various types of policing, Mr. Singh said that problem-oriented policing was best-suited to the needs of the Indian society. He was in favor of stakeholders reaching out to the enforcement agencies with studies related to issues and their after effects and suggest measures for course correction.

He added that the industry should also look at financing such initiatives and collaborate with the government agencies.

 In his keynote address, Mr. Rajiv Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, DIPP, said that piracy and counterfeit were being used as a source for terror-funding and legislation alone could not fight it. There was a need for the government, industry and enforcement agencies to come together and work towards changing the mindset of the society by creating awareness about its ill effects.

This, he said, would go a long way in developing the next generation which would then recognize the importance of IP.

 

Mr. Aggarwal said that laws were in place for IP protection, the need was to implement them. To this end, technology could be leveraged to bring about meaningful and effective solutions with the help of the industry. He added that anti-piracy campaigns were being carried out effectively in various states and the stakeholders with the government needed to find administrative measures to substantially reduce the problem of piracy and protecting IP.

 

Speaking about specialized cells to reduce instances of piracy and counterfeiting, Mr. Aggarwal said that with the Maharashtra Government creating a dedicated cell, it was a step in the right direction. He added that there was a need for running awareness drives in schools where students could be sensitized on this issue. Besides, he suggested that in movie theatres one-minute clips could be run showcasing the damaging effects of piracy and counterfeit.

 The panelists included Mr. Raj Kumar Akella, Chairman, Anti-video Piracy Cell, Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce; Mr. Surrender Mann, Senior Vice-President, Legal, Star India Private Limited; Mr. Bharat Dube, CEO, Strategic IP Information Pte. Ltd.; Mr. Sujeet Jain, Group General Counsel, Viacom18 and Mr. Kulmeet Makkar, Chief Executive Officer, The Film & Television Producers Guild of India Limited. The session was moderated by Mr. Uday Singh, Managing Director, Motion Pictures Association India.