While RANG DE BASANTI is looked forward to as one of the most eagerly awaited movies of 2006, UTV Motion Pictures is also taking a serious note of the potential threat to the commercial prospects of the movie from activities stemming from piracy.

UTV Motion Pictures has appointed credible investigators, backed by support from the police across various states. This anti-piracy team backed by a squad of over 100 agents has already fanned across the country and is expected to conduct several raids over the next few days. .

One unique measure undertaken by UTV is coding the print. While this exercise has been conducted in the past, it has not met with much success as pirates have managed to remove the code. This time, however, with the help of some technological innovation, the producers are confident that pirates will not be able to make much of a dent.

http://www.indiafm.com/news/2006/01/28/6600/index.html

Mumbai: While Rang De Basanti set the box office ringing in Mumbai, elsewhere in the city, sirens wailed as the police recovered a pirated CD of the movie, which was on its way to Pakistan.

Mumbai police arrested a person in relation with illegal piracy at the domestic airport in the wee hours of Saturday morning. The person, from whom the CD was recovered, has been identified as Mohammad Nasir Mohammad Agha Khan.

Police say that Khan had flown in to Mumbai from Delhi, but was nabbed by the police before he could hand the CD over to an accomplice, who would have then taken the CD to Pakistan.

A representative of the United Copyright Protection Association (UCPA), who helped the police make the arrest, explained to the media how the racket operates. The representative said that the film was illegally captured on camera at a theatre in Ghaziabad.

The CD was then brought to Mumbai, from where it would be sent to Pakistan. On reaching Pakistan, copies of the pirated CD would be made and sold back to India.

Director UCPA Javed Raza says, "It's the handwork of a criminal gang operating out of Ghaziabad."

The Director adds that people would be fooled into thinking that the print has come from Pakistan, "but it all happens right here in Ghaziabad".

But that's not the only cause of concern for the association. "They sell the print in Pakistan for four lakh rupees. On an average, six movies are released per month. That's business worth twenty-five lakhs from Pakistan only. Prints are also made in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh in addition to those made in India," says Raza.

Just two days into the release of Rang De Basanti and a piracy racket has already been uncovered. This is a definitive pointer to the speed with which the racketeers operate and the extent of their network.


http://www.ibnlive.com/article.php?id=4532&section_id=8

.. hmm why dont dont they ever try shutting down piraters on Ebay? There are a tonne .. if they raid the stores they obviously wont re-open but will open an online shop via ebay! oh well ..

Urbanlegend, it's because you're among the very few who seem to have a brain. Really, that's the reason. When I was young and naïf <sighs>, I actually was apalled by the sheer number of pirates I'd come across on Ebay. I e-mailed Eros, as I figured they'd be outraged, and leap into action; I e-mailed Yash Raj, thinking the same; and I wrote to Ebay, as I thought they'd be concerned that their "strictly-enforced anti-piracy rules" were being violated. None of the above parties gave half a shit about what I said. These companies, despite their convincing advertisements and impassioned words, really don't give a damn to actually stop piracy in a realistic way. Every now and then, they'll bust some "huge" piracy ring, and they'll tell all the papers about it, as a "warning" to others; but, they'll never actually take steps to stop people from selling pirated goods. If they don't care, why the f*** should we?

It is indeed a very sorry state of affairs that almost all Bollywood stores on eBay deal in fake DVDs. It is so bad that the challenge is to see if you can actually spot an original Bollywood DVD!

Not sure why Eros and YashRaj are not doing about it. They could be making too much profit and don’t care, they might not have the resources to deal with the problem, might be just plain incompetent or maybe THEY are the ones who are behind it all producing the counterfeit DVDs

I am not surprised eBay are not doing anything about it, they don’t want to lose precious revenue by stop pirates listing!

Commando - you should care because it is well documented that there are strong links between piracy and organisation crime.

I guess the best thing to do would be to contact the national anti-piracy organisation. If you’re in the UK try the Federation against Copyright Theft (e-mail: mailto:contact@fact-uk.org.uk), Piracy is a Crime website (e-mail: mailto:info@jdapr.co.uk) and even try the anti piracy unit of the BPI.co.uk (e-mail mailto:Jollyon.Benn@bpi.co.uk) or Trading standards. Or maybe contact them all including the Police! Then you bet something will be done!

You should supply as much information as possible, particularly the seller’s eBay ID. I would probably not be so concerned about someone who has the odd fake item for sale as I would the big-time dealers either with an eBay store or someone who lists at least 15 fake items.

It makes no difference to me whether they take down the piraters or not .. hindi dvds are in no way shape or form close to their hollywood counterparts and deserve to be pirated. In many cases the pirated dvds usually come out better, I mean they dont rot where as the originals by ERO$, DEI, BEI etc do.

They are all in it just for the money, be it ERO$ or Ebay .. they honestly dont care. Every now and then they will bring down a piracy ring (which who knows maybe they created) and will make a big deal about it.

Tee, while I can sympathize with what you say, I think that we, as the consumer, have no obligation to care about piracy when the major companies who purport to be so harmed b the practice, sit idle, doing absolutely nothing about the problem. Additionally, as Urbanlegend said, these pirates (usually) aren't exactly competing with "stellar" products; if anything, we chould revel in the harm done to companies who don't even care to put in the effort (and money) needed to turn out an admirable DVD product. Yes, supporting piracy is "supporting crime," but the crime, in this case, is generally not very reaching beyond the actual "piracy"; it's not really the stuff that also strongly influences overseas cocaine and heroine shipment.

Most of the Indian DVDs found on Ebay — MOST of them — are pirates. Hell, about 80% of the results one gets for a search (especially of a "new release), seem to be "2in1," "3in1," or "4in1" items (which are almost always boot-legged). Of course Ebay doesn't really give a shit: if the companies who are "hurt" by the phenomenon appear utterly uninterested in its occurrence, Ebay has no reason to believe that said companies would present any type of problem to Ebay. Ebay doesn't, itself, care about piracy; it just doesn't want to get in trouble for permitting it. I have, indeed, reported pirate items to Ebay; often, they'll take down the one item, and leave up the seller's other myriad boot-legs. Sorry, but in this environment, it's not the consumer's job to be "ethical."