Online Piracy: Things You Need To Know
Who don’t love freebies? Who miss the opportunities to get their favorite stuff free of cost? Getting your favorite shows and movies online free of cost excites you, Isn’t it? But do you know downloading movies, shows and many more for free is a crime? Yes, you heard it right! It is a crime. And the legal term for this crime is Online Piracy.
Online Piracy in simple words is to illegally copy or distribute software using the internet. Some torrent software allows you to do so. Internet piracy is basically a big business all over the world. But in India, it is gaining popularity rapidly. Bangalore, Mumbai, and Delhi came out to be the hub spots for this activity. According to a 2016th survey, 5.4 billion films, prime time TV, and VOD downloaded worldwide was all pirated content.
Now the question arises is why people get engaged in such activity? The answer is very simple Because it is easy, quick and free. A rational consumer always thinks about his/her profit. The present mindset of people is why to spend money on stuff which you can get for free. Indian film industry is the largest entertainment sector in the world. Where Hollywood earns 1.26 billion annually, Bollywood whooping for 2.6 billion but sadly this industry is the prime victim of online piracy. While China ranks 1st and the US ranks 2nd, India ranks number 5th globally for online piracy.
Founded in 2003, The Pirate Bay is one such online index which creates magnet links and torrent files for the users to download the digital content of entertainment media and software. Kickass torrent (KAT) is another big name in the list of online pirated content. Recently, the movie Udta Punjab was leaked online before its release date. The case was filed against illegal distribution of the movie and the culprit was arrested in Mumbai and was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment along with fine of Rs. 3 lakh.
But if you think this crime is victimless then you are wrong. Online piracy is killing the entertainment world and hurting the emerging artists. Independent creators are struggling to make a career. And when such artists face piracy they lose income and thus lose self-confidence. But luckily, there are many laws against online piracy to save innocents from paying a heavy price. In India, the Copyright Act, 1957 protects all type of music, songs, and videos, literary and artistic work. The Stop Online Piracy Act (STOP) is also one such act that restricts access to sites that host pirated content. The main aim of STOP is to crack down on copyright infringement.
