Music downloads may come to a halt

If the Indian Music Industry, a body representing the industry, has its way, unauthorised downloading of online music may soon come to an end.

The IMI has threatened to take 'appropriate civil and criminal action' against over 600 Web sites and 30 Indian Internet service providers -- including the Internet Service Providers Association of India -- for 'not preventing' the unauthorised downloading of online music. The IMI has over 80 music companies as its members.

An IMI letter, a copy of which is with Business Standard, has accused the Web sites of 'intentional copyright violation' and the Internet service providers of 'facilitating the commission of such serious offences.'

The IMI action comes at a time when at least 500,000 ringtones are being downloaded in India every day.

Around Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) is annually generated by ringtone downloads in India. And because of this Internet piracy, the music industry's size has shrunk by more than Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion).

Mobile music downloads in the Indian market are currently valued at Rs 160-180 crore (Rs 1.6-1.8 billion) annually.

Approximately Rs 50-Rs 60 crore (Rs 500-600 million) in royalty was paid to the music industry over the past 18 months, according to Mandar Thakur, general manager, Soundbuzz India, a music company.

A majority of the Web sites and Internet service providers that Business Standard contacted said they had 'received no such letter,' and hence could not respond.

However, on condition of anonymity, a few Internet service providers did admit receiving the letter and responding to it.

The Internet Service Providers Association of India has 'assured co-operation' with the IMI on this issue.

"We are accordingly informing our members by marking a copy of this letter [so] that Internet service providers involved in this should take note of your complaint and deal with the contents of your notice by sending [an] appropriate reply," a response sent by Internet Service Providers Association of India President Sanjay Dwivedi, said.

Some Internet service providers had even informally told the IMI that they would need a court order to take any action.

Savio D'Souza, secretary-general of IMI, said these responses were 'encouraging but not conclusive'.

"The Indian Music Industry may consider legal action against such parties sometime in February," he pointed out.

Supreme Court advocate and cyber law expert Pavan Duggal says that whenever there is online piracy of copyrighted material, the provisions of the Indian Copyright Act (CA) 1963 and the IT Act 2000 have to be invoked.

Piracy is punishable under Section 63 of the Copyright Act. All network service providers, including the Internet service providers, are liable for this. Section 79 of the IT Act makes Internet service providers liable for all third-party data or information made available by them.

"The Internet service providers can plead not guilty only under two conditions. The first is that they had no knowledge of any contravention of online piracy and second, if they exercised due diligence to prevent the commission of such events. Section 79 can result in a three-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 200,000. The civil liability of damages can run up to Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million) by way of compensation. Simultaneously, they can be prosecuted under the Copyright Act too," said Duggal.

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