MR NICE
Age: 124
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This is what I read about the current Anti-piracy drive a few weeks back. So its not new or breaking news.
A visit to any entertainment media outlet is no longer exciting for music or movie fans. What awaits them nowadays is sheer disappointment. Everywhere they go there are empty racks where once used to be a stack of a huge assortment of CDs and VCDs bulging with movies of all genres. About a month back, a customer had the luxury of buying a DVD containing up to five English movies or two to three Indian movies for Rs 80 to Rs 100. But now shopkeepers are quoting ridiculously high prices or refusing to entertain customers. Most of them are even telling their loyal customers that they have temporarily suspended their business and will resume soon.
Regardless of the stance taken by these retailers and wholesale dealers of CDs and DVDs, one thing is for sure, - their main supply chain has been cut since the last one month. What happened was that in a raid conducted by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Karachi, six factories producing pirated optical discs were shut down. Besides, nine people were arrested and more than 400,000 pirated CDs, DVDs and audio cassettes, along with 10,000 master discs (stampers) were confiscated. Two of the raided factories are located in SITE area, three in FB Industrial Area and one in North Karachi.
The said factories were reportedly producing millions of discs that were mostly exported to different countries. Whereas a huge number of these discs were also supplied to wholesale dealers, shopkeepers and retailers in business centers like Rainbow Centre in Karachi, Hafeez Center and Hall Road in Lahore, Imperial Market in Islamabad and so on. The instant shock suffered by businessmen dealing in optical media was so severe that they condemned the government for toeing the line of foreign masters at the cost of their countrymen. "Our business activities halted the day FIA sealed six factories all fulfilling the entertainment and educational needs of the country," was all that Saleem Memon, President Rainbow Video Merchant Welfare Association, Karachi could say when contacted by media personnel.
Muhammad Shakeel, a wholesale dealer at Hall Road in Lahore tells The News on Sunday that export of pirated DVDs from Pakistan had been an eyesore for international brands which were suffering heavy losses due to this practice. "The whole operation against DVD manufacturers was carried out on behest of world leaders in entertainment business. Though the main purpose was to stop the export of pirated DVDs, the closure also affected local markets and the ordinary customers. Reason being the sources for the local and international markets is the same. These DVDs produced in manufacturing plants situated in Karachi can fetch about Rs 60 (US$1) each in Pakistan and Rs 600 (US$10) each in the international market," he adds.
Shakeel's claims are well supported by the annual report released by the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) for the year 2005. IIPA is a private sector coalition formed in 1984 to represent the U.S. copyright-based industries in bilateral and multilateral efforts to improve international protection of copyrighted materials. The report says that Pakistan remains one of the world's leading overproducers and exporters of pirated optical discs of copyrighted material. It says that ten known facilities in Pakistan produced an upwards of 230 million discs in 2004 of which about 205 million were exported the same year. Based on the latest evidence, more than 30 per cent of those discs were ultimately destined for the US. The report adds that exports of pirated copyrighted material from Pakistan harms markets in at least 40 countries.
Adeel Ahmed, an MCS student says, "It was never a big deal to get hold of DVDs of movies before their release in theatres. But now nobody is ready to talk to customers, due to fear of being caught for dealing in pirated goods. Shopkeepers say they are wary of entertaining new customers as they may well be personnel of law enforcing agencies in disguise," he tells Instep. Adeel says he is hardly convinced by the argument given by international companies complaining against copyright infringement. There is no justification in making the domestic consumers suffer for the failure of the importing countries to check an influx of pirated products. "This does not mean that I support piracy. In fact I strongly oppose the idea of selling copyrighted products at uniform rates all over the world. Is it fair that a company that gets something made in China or Taiwan for $5 sells it worldwide for $100 just because it has an established brand name? If international entertainment companies want to stop piracy, they must offer DVDs and games at cheaper prices, according to the purchasing power of people in a particular country. They have nothing to lose, as they are not earning any revenues from countries like Pakistan. I think they would be willing to buy original products if they are not 100 times more expensive but just maybe two or three times more than the pirated products."
Asif Bhatti, a computer hardware importer, agrees with Adeel. He says, "If Western countries want to stop piracy in Pakistan, they need to convince international distributors to lower their royalty charges. I don't think there is any foreign label selling original CDs or DVDs in Pakistan. How can you stop this so-called illegal business from expanding when people do not have the option to buy the legally produced products?"
He cites the example of Warner Brothers Home Entertainment, which has recently announced the release of more than 100 movies on DVD in China at discounted prices. "The release of low-cost DVDs in China will help the company offset some of the losses caused by piracy. But more importantly, this will help develop a culture of buying legally produced copyrighted products in that country. If this can happen in China then why not in Pakistan?"
Going by the book there are three main types of piracy, and all of them are rampant in Pakistan. They are simple piracy, counterfeits and bootlegging. By simple piracy we mean the unauthorised duplication of an original recording without the consent of the rights owner. The packaging of pirated copies is different from the original. Counterfeits are copied and packaged to resemble the original as closely as possible. The original producer's trademarks and logos are reproduced in order to mislead the consumer into believing that they are buying an original product. Whereas bootlegs are the unauthorised recordings of live or broadcast performances duplicated and sold without the permission of the artist, composer or record company.
"The reason behind existence of every type of pirated material in Pakistani markets is the immunity from law enjoyed by those dealing in this business. Though considered a big crime in developed countries, our courts normally take piracy as a minor offense. The punishments are often more token than effective," says Ali Asghar, a Lahore-based lawyer. He thinks the trade of illegally produced optical media can only be stopped by making the laws stricter and effective and defining tougher punishments for wrongdoers.
He also calls for passing and implementation of an effective optical disc law as suggested by IIPA. The international body says this law should cover areas like giving government authorities "control over optical disc production, including mandatory licensing, inspections (including by representative organizations), closure of plants in violation, monitoring and control on imports of production equipment and raw materials (including optical grade polycarbonate) and requirements to use unique source identifiers (SID Code) to track location of production."
Welfare Association of Hafeez Center Offices (WAHCO) Finance Secretary Arif Nadeem seems perturbed by the "harassment" of association members at the hand of law-enforcing authorities. He says "it is quite disturbing for all of us to face raiding parties headed by law-enforcing authorities. We have even asked the representatives of international organisations to bring irregularities, if any, to the notice of the association before approaching law-enforcing authorities. But the problem is that every time they get a case registered against a few retailers, they accompany the raiding party and just disappear."
Arif says that none of these complainants has ever come to us and discussed piracy-related issues. "What we want to do is to convince them to offer their products at affordable rates in the domestic market. Once they agree to our proposal, we would ensure that not even a single illegally produced unit is sold in the market. This would save them from going through the agony of approaching the FIA and police authorities and convincing them to come to their rescue," he concludes
MR NICE
Age: 124
7503 days old here
Total Posts: 1124
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More on the Anti- Piracy drive.
Piracy is as alive as ever in Karachi
Yes, the panic alert that went around after the FIA raids on the DVD/CD manufacturing factories had Karachi viewers flumoxed, but they heaved a sigh of relief when pirated films slowly but surely started making their way back to the shops. Lahore might be crying for its share of movies, but this last weekend, Karachiites have been home happy with their copies of Bunty Aur Babli (a relatively 'good', read clear, pirate print) and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (a demo print, that is as good as a master copy).
The crackdown on piracy is nothing new in Pakistan. After all, we all recall the days when the Rainbow Centre was closed down for a little over a week before its doors were opened again. Karachi is the largest video and audio market in Pakistan and its distribution networks, though illegal, are sophisticated enough to come up with alternative avenues when those that exist are forcibly shut.
Indeed, in the wake of CD factories being shut down for producing pirated CDs, even legitimate labels like Soundmaster cannot release music, because they used the facilities of the same factories that have been shut down. On the other hand the fact that no action is being taken against cable providers that continue to show American, English and Indian films much to the delight of their viewers is just one example of why nobody is taking copyright seriously at all – just yet.
Piracy has for so long been the norm in this country that a switch to copyright will have to involve a long term plan to create awareness of intellectual property rights in Pakistan and then make sure that the laws relating to intellectual property are enforced and not publicly flouted.
MR NICE
Age: 124
7503 days old here
Total Posts: 1124
Points: 0
Location:
United Kingdom, United Kingdom
Indian Movies are being shown on cable but they are in VCD format and not in DVD. The print quality is pretty poor.
Charizmatic I also don't know why the B4U logo is being used.
Lets see how long this Anti-piracy drive lasts in Pakistan because there are alot of bigwigs with vested interest in this huge multi million rupee business.
For an example a few years ago it was estimated that the Rainbow Market in Saddar, Karachi on daily basis did a business of 1 crore rupees.
More then 70% of the market is dominated by Indian Stuff and the rest by Pakistani and English.
Bush_Blasta
Age: 124
7579 days old here
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yeah, piracy to khatam ho jaye.
leken i hope official dvds start coming.
india hates pakistan n many of actors n producers also hate pakistan cuz of their buisness in piracy.
but i hope tht if the official dvds come out, they wont be that expensive
..Last month FIA raid here on big market DVD & CD..
