It’s A Steal
Piracy costs creators and media firms billions every year, and govt also loses its share of GST. A crackdown is warranted
Delhi teacher Neetu Singh’s win against messaging app Telegram may not lead to blockbuster compensation for her, but it’s a milestone in India’s fight against piracy. Singh wrote a helpbook for competitive exams, and before long, its pirate copies were circulating on Telegram. In 2020, she sued the app, seeking details of those sharing her work. Telegram cited free speech, and right to privacy in its defence, but Delhi HC disagreed. The verdict sets a precedent for other writers, publishers, actors, music artistes, etc, who’re deprived of the fruits of their labour.
Piracy was a huge problem before, and now it’s become bigger. You might not realise it, because stalls pushing copied software, audio CDs and movie DVDs have disappeared. But that’s because the business has moved online. Two years ago, an EY report estimated that, revenue-wise, “piracy economy” was the fourth largest player in the Indian media and entertainment space. It was costing govt ₹4,313cr in GST annually, but more importantly it was making ₹22,000cr while depriving creators of bigger earnings. More than half of all media consumers, it said, had accessed pirated content, and three-fourths of them were younger than 35 years.
The problem has become intractable, however, because this illegal sharing increasingly happens via mobile apps and social media. Encrypted messaging apps like Telegram and WhatsApp make tracing the offenders almost impossible. Telegram, in fact, has been a favourite of content pirates for years now because of its enabling features. For example, it allows users to share files of up to 2GB, which means an entire movie in high resolution. It also runs the files within the app, so users don’t have to worry too much about malware. During the pandemic, piracy on Telegram had increased 11-fold.
While this may not be deliberate, Telegram hasn’t done enough to make piracy difficult. India is its largest market – almost as large as the next three combined – and it’s been facing heat from govt since the NEET-UG leak. Now, GOI has also put it on notice to address the piracy issue. But the fight against piracy can’t be limited to any one app or platform. New AI tools can raise flags about unusual sharing patterns, and also detect pirated content itself from metadata. So, platforms, publishers and govt should work together to end piracy, while balancing the need for privacy.
https://www.livelaw.in/law-firms/law-firm-articles-/digital-piracy-evolving-courts-312395
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
