- India to
get tough on traditional knowledge piracy
Economy
Bureau
New Delhi, Oct 13 The government on Thursday
said that it would not adopt a policy of selective fast-tracking as far as harmonisation
of patent systems is concerned. Speaking at a symposium on “The new patent regime-
Advantage India,” Ajay Dua, secretary, department of industrial policy and promotion,
indicated that the possibility of India making commitments on such harmonisation,
being carried out under the World Intellectual Property Oganisation (WIPO), would
be contingent on the success of its efforts to avoid unauthorised use of India’s
traditional knowledge in the global patent system.
Pointing out that
as India’s vast traditional knowledge is not well documented, the country needed
to protect such knowledge and not further expose it to knowledge piracy. A UN
estimate is that royalty worth $5 billion is annually denied to developing countries
by unauthorised use fo traditional knowledge.
India’s Patent Act provides
for payment of reasonable royalty to the patent holder. The government is likely
to quantify the royalty in the patent rules.
URL: http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=105476
- Will music piracy in India end?
October
10, 2005
Abhilasha
Ojha | October 10, 2005 06:59 IST
http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2005/oct/10piracy.htm
Try
this. Log onto the Web sites www.chalchitra. com and mp3india.com and click on
the section devoted to music downloads. You'll find yourself staring at the message:
"This page cannot be found." Go to geet4u.com, and the Web site doesn't
exist anymore. Big deal, did you say?
Actually, it is, especially if
you knew that some of these Web sites, until almost 10 months ago, offered Netizens
the option to download music illegally.
Meanwhile, authorities from Indian
Music Industry proudly narrate a success saga from Tamil Nadu. Music sales over
the past eight months have picked up considerably and gone up by 20 per cent.
"Overall," confirms V J Lazarus, president, IMI, "piracy is getting
curbed in Tamil Nadu."
Even sales of original DVDs and VCDs have
increased and sales of film tickets at counters have gone up by 30 per cent. IMI
feels it has happened due to the inclusion of audio and video piracy under the
Goonda Act and now the organisation along with IFPI is in talks with other state
governments like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, West Bengal and Gujarat to
press for the same.
Which is why, last month in New Delhi, Chennai and
Mumbai, IMI officials and Iaian Grant, head of enforcement, International Federation
of Phonographic Industries, met CBI officials, police commissioners and joint
commissioners of Indian Police and authorities from FICCI to talk on piracy issues
plaguing the Indian entertainment industry.
Lazarus feels a beginning
has been made for the industry that, despite being the third largest entertainment
industry in the world, makes no contribution to India's GDP. "It is 0 per
cent as compared to the US music and entertainment industry that contributes nearly
6 per cent to the country's GDP," he says, adding, "This despite the
fact that Indian music is gaining increasing popularity around the world."
Grant
is confident that together with IMI, government and legal authorities, "IFPI
will train anti-piracy teams and senior police officers to crack the whip on on-line
websites that offer illegal downloads and even places where discs, cassettes and
VCDs are illegally manufactured and sold."
Having returned from Pakistan,
Grant informs us of raids in Pakistan where five CD plants have been shut down,
arrest warrants issued against owners of the plants and an estimated 4,00,000
pirated optical discs seized. In New Delhi, even as IMI and IFPI officials met,
a raid in Palika Bazaar helped officials seize nearly 20,000 pirated music CDs
in one single day.
"Every effort will be made to detain the key
suspects," promises Grant who along with IMI authorities has pressed for
a draft to be formulated by FICCI that will ensure ways to what he calls a "full-stop
on piracy faced by the Indian entertainment industry".
With Pakistan
forming the Pakistan Intellectual Property Rights Organisation to oversee copyright,
trademark and patent protection issues, in India, Grant feels, "Slapping
a severe penalty on goons indulging in piracy will make a difference."
Savio
D'Souza seconds the statement, "It is futile if we just raid manufacturing
plants and the owners go scot-free after every few days. The entire legal system
needs to support an industry that is losing nearly Rs 450 crore (Rs 4.5 billion)
to piracy alone."
It remains to be seen -- and heard -- if efforts
by IMI and IFPI can garner better tunes for the music industry in India.
- Call to restrict 'stifling' patents
October
13 2005
By
Alan Beattie World Trade Editor http://news.ft.com/cms/s/3e3b14aa-3c1e-11da-94fb-00000e2511c8.html
Published: October 13 2005 20:29 | Last updated: October 13 2005 20:29
An
international group of academics, scientists and artists has called for strict
limits on patents and copyrights, concerned that the spread of intellectual property
protection is suppressing knowledge and stifling creativity.
A charter
on intellectual property (IP), developed by the Royal Society of Arts in London,
calls for an automatic presumption against creating new protection or extending
existing rules.
It also argues that patents and copyrights should
not be allowed to apply to computer code, business processes, scientific theories
or abstract data.
Today's intellectual property regime was “radically
out of line with modern technological, economic and social trends”, said the charter.
Such laws have proliferated in recent years and have been pushed in bilateral
and multilateral trade agreements, particularly by the US.
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