In this article, Yash Purwiya of KIIT School of Law What legal actions can be taken against a person who is caught filming a movie in a theatre.

Piracy

Without the permission of the copyright holder, reproduction or importing of the entire or any part of copyrighted work, and selling it at a substantially lower price, in the black market is termed as piracy. Mainly, there are 3 types of piracy:

• Of movies
• Of music
• Of software

Camcorder piracy

• Recording a movie intentionally in a theatre with any type of recording device such as a camcorder, smartphone, voice recorder, or taking photographs of any portion of the video or audio track of the movie, it comes under the camcorder piracy. In other words, imagine you are watching a movie on your computer, suddenly you find that the print of movie is distorting, you feel the movie does not fit on your screen because it is the cam-print movie made by the phone’s camera. The cam print is also known as camcorder piracy.
• The camcorder piracy is the type of duplicate of movie or audios. Like stealing a VCD or DVD from the shops, stealing a movie of the screen is illegal.
• The film is recorded using a camcorder while it is played in the public theatres, this print is then uploaded to the internet just after few days or some hours after the actual movie is released, and is sometimes, leaked prior to the release of the movie.
• This causes a massive loss to the filmmaker. There are pirated forms of movies which rather sold out online or emerged with different online auctions.
• By this way, the thief profits a huge amount of money.

Is it legal to film a movie in the theatre?

No, it is not legal to filming a movie in a theatre. Most of the movies are registered under the Copyright Act and without the permission of the copyright holder of the movie, no one can copy it and if someone commits such act then the copyright holder has right to take action against him under the Copyright Act, 1957.  

Laws related to online piracy in India

On a regular basis, we use the internet in our life. In India, internet users are daily using torrent sites to access a range of entertainment. Indians form the largest group to download Indian copyright content from torrent sites according to the study. The maximum level of illegal downloading is being accounted in Bangalore, Delhi, and Mumbai.

Under the Copyright (Amendment 2012) Act, 1957 the copyright holder protect their work from bringing pirated.

Section 63 of the Copyright Act, 1957

The offence of infringement mentioned in the copyright act, section 63 which gives that any person intentionally violates the copyright or assist in the violation of the same, will be entitled to punishment under this section.

Offence of infringement of copyright or other rights conferred by this Act. — Any person who knowingly infringes or abets the infringement of—

(a) the copyright in a work, or

(b) any other right conferred by this Act, except the right conferred by section 53A shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months but which may extend to three years and with fine which shall not be less than fifty thousand rupees but which may extend to two lakh rupees.

Provided that where the infringement has not been made for gain in the course of trade or business, the court may, for adequate and special reasons to be mentioned in the judgment, impose a sentence of imprisonment for a term of less than six months or a fine of less than fifty thousand rupees. 

Section 63 A of the Copyright Act, 1957

If any person who has already been convicted of an offence under the previous section (63) and he repeats such offence again, will be entitled to punishment under Section 63-A, which is deals with the repeat offences.

“Enhanced penalty on second and subsequent convictions.—Whoever having already been convicted of an offence under section 63 is again convicted of any such offence shall be punishable for the second and for every subsequent offence, with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than one year but which may extend to three years and with fine which shall not be less than one lakh rupees but which may extend to two lakhs rupee”.

Section 65 of the Copyright Act, 1957

If any person who intentionally makes any plates with the aim of making duplicate copies of copyright work will be entitled to punishment under section 65 of the Copyright Act.

“Possession of plates for purpose of making infringing copies. Any person who knowingly makes, or has in his possession, any plate for the purpose of making infringing copies of any work in which copyright subsists shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to two years and shall also be liable to fine.”

Why is there a need to stop camcorder piracy

• Because all forms of piracy hurt the entertainment industry, the economy of countries that make movies and in the end, the consumers. After the cam-corded of the movie, it is uploaded to the internet after a few days or some hours after the actual movie release.This cost a massive loss to the industry.
• There are pirated forms of the movies which rather sold out online or merged with the different online auction. By this way, the thieves save a huge amount of money. Every year in Bollywood and Hollywood a lot of movie releases but the pirated movies defeat them in the race.
• Pirated movies also hurt our entertainment industry as the makers put a huge amount of money on the cast and the crew, and it doesn’t get it back vice-verse. With the entertainment world, it affects economically too.
• The movie industry is an economic machine that provides jobs and contributes to the economy of countries that produce movies. The pirated formation are sold as its doesn’t provide a good amount to the producers and the job contributors connected to the movie industry and have invested in it.
• Piracy must be controlled as it affect us in a dark way, it is stopping the new formation and technologies to come up with a new creation.

What legal action can be taken against a person who is caught filming a movie in a theatre?

Filming a copyrighted movie is an offence under Copyright Act. Most of the projected works covered by copyright if any reproduction of the same of the copyright project without the permission of the owner would be punishable under the copyright act.

The violation of the right of the owner to be credited and copyright infringement are both civil wrongs and criminal charges can also be filed against the person who violates his right. We can take a civil action against the person who is caught filming a movie in a theatre.

The offender may be prosecuted under offence of copyright infringement which is punishable with an imprisonment of 6 months which can be extended to 3 years or a fine not less than 50 thousand which can be extended to 2 lakhs and the person also liable for the offence of piracy under the section 63 and 65 A of the Copyright Act, in which the person would be punishable with an imprisonment of 2 years with fine. And we also take criminal actions against him under the section -378 (theft), 420 (fraud) and 415 (cheating) of Indian Penal Code because the act of the person shows the ingredients that are needed for these sections.

Conclusion

Piracy is a huge problem in the movie industry in India. It hurts the economy of the country that makes movies. Piracy damages the economies everywhere, movies are broadcasted, sold or displayed. Some countries that have already experienced the complete closure of their film industry due to piracy. In a recent time in India, we came across lots of cases related to piracy.

Last year, the movie ‘Dilwale’ was a victim of piracy because it’s pirated version, circulated a day before its release. Online piracy has been one of the main reasons for the decline of this sector.Only the solution to this problem is that people need to understand that piracy is a crime.

People do not want to wait for the tickets to come in their hands, they escape to be standing in lines and waiting for it so, they are happy with pirated formation. Six out of ten movie does not get their actual amount as it is taken as a dangerous venture now.

The state should take proper step by blocking websites that permit downloads of pirated films and another thing is that the DVD versions must be provided within a week or two after the formal release, as a wait of three-four months is a bit long.

The main reason behind piracy is that people are able to buy a pirated DVD at a very lower price and a whole family easily watches the movie at such low cost. The industry must give this kind of entertainment at a reasonable price.