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by Talia Jayasekera

Want to buy the latest music album, video game or movie currently playing in America? It's as easy as snapping your fingers. Just walk into any shopping mall in Colombo and you are greeted with the sight of hundreds of shops carrying various titles. Each one trying to outdo the other by slashing prices to as low as Rs. 75. At this price one can get a somewhat mediocre camera copy of a current movie box-office hit. Or at the very least the latest Santana or Britney Spears album. Shop owners see themselves not as criminals but as honest traders providing products to the people at a price they can afford.

Easy money! This is the motive behind the counterfeiting and pirating of music and movie CD's. Being a worldwide $ 16 million a year business, who can resist the temptation of this very profitable venture? It takes only a few days for counterfeiters to replicate an original product on the market at half the cost. Another 2 days to export it to other countries. Duplicated products dominate the market and legal manufacturers are losing their market share and revenue.

Sri Lankan involvement

Sri Lanka is no stranger to this phenomenon. We are all guilty in some ways of purchasing these pirated products. The reasoning behind this is - why wait endlessly for a rather expensive original when you can buy a cheaper, more readily available copy? Who can argue with logic like that? Our Government seems to neither frown upon it nor nod at it, leaving the public to make the decision. Our local piraters are so bold that some individuals have opened large shops that are frequented by hundreds of people on a daily basis. These `organisations' even have their own media campaigns that blatantly run in the sunday papers or on banners throughout the city. Rs. 150 for the video CD and a further Rs. 30 for the cover. Why do the Authorities, who claim to be fighting hard against this corruption, not raid places like these?

Most importantly one must ask the question - what about the companies who spend millions of dollars producing the originals? How are they affected by the counterfeiting trade? Who protects their intellectual property rights? Just last week, CID officials busted a pirating racket which contained music and movies from both local and international artistes. The stock even boasted over a 100 pornographic video titles imported mostly from a neighbouring country. Not much action is taken against these racketeers by local authorities.

A big threat

Companies are losing millions of dollars in profits as piracy is such a big threat to them. Almost 60% of local producers and artistes in the music and movie industry lose out on royalties from their life's work because of this problem. In a bid to curb the piracy in the country and reduce the revenue losses by companies, the US based International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) focused its attention on Sri Lanka in October 2002 to round up illegal music and movie vendors. The organisation which actively participates in anti-music piracy campaigns globally, asked the Commerce and Consumer Affairs Ministry to strengthen the country's somewhat lax Intellectual Property Act.

"The Sri Lanka Intellectual Property Act was first established in 1979", says the Intellectual Property Office Director Dr. D.M. Karunaratne. "We deal with registering of patents, trademarks, copyright among many things. The Act is meant to protect companies, producers and artists from an illegal duplication or plagiarism".

"But the Act has quite a few loopholes in the areas of sale and reproduction. Under the existing law of the country, reproduction of music and movie material is strictly prohibited but certain unscrupulous people replicate the material and sell it to unsuspecting customers", he said. "We are a member of the Berne Convention and because of this we have to protect all international and national investors in this country as one, no matter if it is songs, movies, books or industrial patents and trademarks.

"Another loophole is the rental of video cassettes and CDs without approval. It is very popular amongst the public here. But unknowingly the public is lining the pockets of these culprits by paying inflated rental rates. The production companies and actors lose out in the process".

Rental loopholes

"Violation of the Act could mean a criminal sanction. The legal organisation can take the individual to courts and request an injunction. Further still they can claim for damages stating the adverse effects on their business. At present, the punishment dealt out to these people is a 2 year imprisonment and a fine of RS 20,000. But I do not personally know how many cases have been prosecuted", he said.

"The public does not realise that by buying copies they are hurting the national creativity. Local artistes and authors who have spent their life making their dreams come true are not even able to recover production costs much less make a profit. Due to this they might not even consider doing it a second. Then national pride is lost to us as a result of these activities", explained Dr Karunaratne. "The problem is we cannot stop people from buying a copy.

The reason for this is because originals tend to be very expensive and the public cannot be blamed for choosing the cheaper. So we are in talks with certain organisations to bring down some prices".

"This organisation is also holding some awareness programs for the public on the consequences of their actions. People need to be taught to respect the intellectual properties of others. How else can we promote the creativity of our country? We cannot encourage such illegal activities", he said.

Sensitive issue

"Raiding shops does send out warning signals to others in the business. But this is a very sensitive issue and we need to tread carefully. Or it could become a political problem. We have done our best to stop this problem to the best of our ability. We just cannot walk in and raid shopping complexes, there are procedures to be followed".

"Everyone expects the Government to do something about this problem, but it would be appreciated if the owners would help in this fight. They too could be involved as we have very limited man-power and funds in this area. The Police are very helpful but they cannot be expected to devote all their time to this cause. They have other pressing matters to contend with", said Dr Karunaratne.

SP Nimal Kulathunge of the CID told the Daily News that there have been many cases of piracy reported in this country but even though they raid such places, the Police cannot do it on a regular basis as there are other issues to address. "It is a big problem and we are doing our best to combat it. At the moment, we are working hard to track the movements of these pirated stocks when they enter the country. We are investigating how these stocks enter the country and from where they originate. We have received a tip on another stock and plan to act swiftly within the next few days. We must come down hard on the culprits", he said.

Public awareness

Attempts to curb piracy with anti-piracy laws and operations have put only a small dent in the business. The Government should begin by strengthening the Intellectual Property Act in certain areas. Companies need the protection of this Act to dissuade counterfeiters from stealing their products. More importantly, the public should be made aware of the seriousness of this issue and deterred from buying fakes. Without them there would be no demand. Maybe local and international firms could consider a subsidized rate for their products in the Asian sub-continent. The local authorities should clean up their act and implement more reliable laws against the wrong-doers. Is this war on counterfeiting ever worth the effort when the counterfeiters are back in action within a few days of a raid?

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