At the Creative Tree Project conference organized by law firm Anand and Anand, Yatra Books and literary consultancy Sihayi last week, the session on the Internet focused almost entirely on issues of piracy of content. Some notes from the conference: Uday Singh, MD (India), Motion Pictures Association: On the Impact of the Internet on the opening weekend: The Internet is a blessing and a curse: we open really big, and with 3000 screens (due to digital distribution), but the opening weekend becomes the most decisive part. It's a parachute for a movie, if it doesn't open, you're dead. You try and get your money out as soon as possible. Part of it is saturation release, so you need a strong marketing campaign. (If three films open that weekend) People go to the Internet to see the film if they can't see all three at all theaters. It's an attitudinal issue, and a lot of it is because of lack of awareness. On Piracy Syndicates: Piracy is not the work of one person, but 300 people. Our current law has copy protection measures but no access control measures, and hackers tools have not been banned. Our primary drive is to identify where the liabiltiy lies. We're not concerned about the end users, but by people releasing our movies before we can. Release groups are habitual offenders, and give guaranteed deliveries across the world. HD images go to Russia, and exporting it to other parts of the world. There are sites that are set…
