President Abdul Kalam's Ignited Minds and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen's The Argumentative Indian can be seen lying on footpaths for sale, courtesy rampant piracy!
Today everything is copied, be it clothes, footwear, watches, liquor, medicines, foodstuff, aerated drinks, cosmetics or even currency!
Fake products are easily available on wayside stalls and sometimes in flashy showrooms too, at a fraction of the original price.
Counterfeit Branding
All international brand products are reproduced today, be Nike, Adidas, Tommy Hilfiger, Gucci, Prada, Diesel or Louis Vuitton.
Many a time the consumer is conned into buying a look-alike product. In branded shoes like Adidas, customer can easily discern the difference between original and the fake but in the case of clothes it's difficult to identify the difference.
For instance Adidas counterfeit Tshirts, sometimes have two stripes instead of three. Shop owners use cheap imported material and offer it as the original.
"Sometime back Levi's had warned the hawkers against selling fake products of their brand but soon these smalltime sellers were back in business. So the company took to print advertisements to educate people about spotting fake products. This yielded positive results," says Keshav Mansukhani, a franchisee of many international brands in the city.
It's not just apparel and footwear but counterfeiting is excessively rampant in bags and accessories like watches and cologne.
Pirated Books
From Harry Potter to Da Vinci Code, the pirated versions of all the latest books are available in bookstores or on roadside bookstalls. It brings down the income of booksellers, publishers, author and the government.
Anil Chavan, Manager, Pathfinder bookstore, says that a year back the Pune Bookseller Association had lodged a complaint against hawkers selling pirated books.
The police arrested the hawkers but after a few months it was business as usual. Sujata Deshpande, Editor, Rajhans Prakashan has the same story to tell.
Last year the publication lodged a complaint against errant booksellers selling the Marathi translation of Ignited Minds, the rights of which were owned by their publishing house.
But when the police raided these shops, the stock was not available. No action could be taken against the sellers due to lack of evidence.
"It is depressing when somebody cashes in on the hard labour put in by you," says Despande.
Miscellaneous
Counterfeit also thrives in FMCG market, medicines, aerated drinks and foodstuff. It is projected that a large percentage of the world's spurious drugs are produced in India and the market for fake drugs is estimated to be over Rs 4,000 crore i.e. 20 percent of the total drugs market.
Today everything is copied, be it clothes, footwear, watches, liquor, medicines, foodstuff, aerated drinks, cosmetics or even currency!
Fake products are easily available on wayside stalls and sometimes in flashy showrooms too, at a fraction of the original price.
Counterfeit Branding
All international brand products are reproduced today, be Nike, Adidas, Tommy Hilfiger, Gucci, Prada, Diesel or Louis Vuitton.
Many a time the consumer is conned into buying a look-alike product. In branded shoes like Adidas, customer can easily discern the difference between original and the fake but in the case of clothes it's difficult to identify the difference.
For instance Adidas counterfeit Tshirts, sometimes have two stripes instead of three. Shop owners use cheap imported material and offer it as the original.
"Sometime back Levi's had warned the hawkers against selling fake products of their brand but soon these smalltime sellers were back in business. So the company took to print advertisements to educate people about spotting fake products. This yielded positive results," says Keshav Mansukhani, a franchisee of many international brands in the city.
It's not just apparel and footwear but counterfeiting is excessively rampant in bags and accessories like watches and cologne.
Pirated Books
From Harry Potter to Da Vinci Code, the pirated versions of all the latest books are available in bookstores or on roadside bookstalls. It brings down the income of booksellers, publishers, author and the government.
Anil Chavan, Manager, Pathfinder bookstore, says that a year back the Pune Bookseller Association had lodged a complaint against hawkers selling pirated books.
The police arrested the hawkers but after a few months it was business as usual. Sujata Deshpande, Editor, Rajhans Prakashan has the same story to tell.
Last year the publication lodged a complaint against errant booksellers selling the Marathi translation of Ignited Minds, the rights of which were owned by their publishing house.
But when the police raided these shops, the stock was not available. No action could be taken against the sellers due to lack of evidence.
"It is depressing when somebody cashes in on the hard labour put in by you," says Despande.
Miscellaneous
Counterfeit also thrives in FMCG market, medicines, aerated drinks and foodstuff. It is projected that a large percentage of the world's spurious drugs are produced in India and the market for fake drugs is estimated to be over Rs 4,000 crore i.e. 20 percent of the total drugs market.
E-Piracy: The High Cost of Stolen Books
Analysts estimate that hundreds of thousands of e-readers were given as gifts this holiday season, spurring a massive explosion in the number of e-books that will likely be hopping off virtual shelves. Barnes and Noble reports that the deluge has already begun, as "nearly 1 million e-books were purchased on Christmas Day alone."
In the coming months, many of these new owners will discover websites where e-books can be downloaded for free. While some will gravitate toward legitimate websites like Project Gutenberg, or Google Books, others will use "pirate websites" – file-sharing sites where copyrighted content is made available to readers without the author's permission.
The Cost to Authors
Lost book sales can't be quantified, making it impossible to calculate the full cost of e-piracy, but the sheer number of illegal copies available for download gives an idea of the scope of the problem. At one file-sharing website, users have uploaded 1,830 copies of three books by a popular young adult author. Just one of those copies has had 4,208 downloads. On the same site, 7,130 copies of the late Michael Crichton's novels have been uploaded, and the first 10 copies have been downloaded 15,174 times.
Even if only a fraction of the downloads from this and dozens of other file-sharing websites represent actual lost sales, they still translate into a staggering amount of royalties that have been stolen from authors.
There's another cost to authors besides lost royalties: time. Many file-sharing websites will remove unauthorized material, but only at the instigation of the copyright holder. Multiple copies require multiple takedown requests. And, even after an illegal copy of an author's work has been removed, the book is often simply reposted by another user.
In the coming months, many of these new owners will discover websites where e-books can be downloaded for free. While some will gravitate toward legitimate websites like Project Gutenberg, or Google Books, others will use "pirate websites" – file-sharing sites where copyrighted content is made available to readers without the author's permission.
The Cost to Authors
Lost book sales can't be quantified, making it impossible to calculate the full cost of e-piracy, but the sheer number of illegal copies available for download gives an idea of the scope of the problem. At one file-sharing website, users have uploaded 1,830 copies of three books by a popular young adult author. Just one of those copies has had 4,208 downloads. On the same site, 7,130 copies of the late Michael Crichton's novels have been uploaded, and the first 10 copies have been downloaded 15,174 times.
Even if only a fraction of the downloads from this and dozens of other file-sharing websites represent actual lost sales, they still translate into a staggering amount of royalties that have been stolen from authors.
There's another cost to authors besides lost royalties: time. Many file-sharing websites will remove unauthorized material, but only at the instigation of the copyright holder. Multiple copies require multiple takedown requests. And, even after an illegal copy of an author's work has been removed, the book is often simply reposted by another user.
From Music to Books: Piracy Threatens Professional Publishers
While piracy in the music industry is well documented and widespread, little attention has been given to its latest victim, professional books. The latest article in Simba Information's bi-monthly newsletter Professional Content Report, "Professional Book Piracy Thriving in Cyberspace," finds challenges in combating piracy and quantifying the potential revenue loss.
Currently moving onto an online platform, professional book publications, which generate $13.91 billion in revenue annually, are confronting mounting losses from digital piracy, the article finds. Several websites that publish textbooks and eBooks for free are profiting through subscriptions and advertising while maintaining immunity from copyright infringement, making these profiteers very difficult opponents.
"If piracy is next to impossible to fight, the question is how publishers should react to this situation," notes Dan Strempel, senior editor of Professional Content Report. "Do they treat piracy as part of the cost of doing business in the Internet age, or do they try and recoup piracy losses from paying customers by raising prices? It would be extremely challenging for publishers to do the latter, considering the economic pressures in the scholarly/professional system."
Quantifying the loss associated with this piracy remains a challenge. Findings suggest as much as $1.7 million in potential revenue is lost per title in the technical segment and about $1 million per title in the science segment. According to the article, progress is being made through trade associations and cooperation between publishers; however, there remains a greater need of public awareness, government resources and collective effort to effectively combat book piracy.
"Until someone puts the 'force' in international copyright enforcement, they might just have to learn to deal with it," notes Strempel.
Currently moving onto an online platform, professional book publications, which generate $13.91 billion in revenue annually, are confronting mounting losses from digital piracy, the article finds. Several websites that publish textbooks and eBooks for free are profiting through subscriptions and advertising while maintaining immunity from copyright infringement, making these profiteers very difficult opponents.
"If piracy is next to impossible to fight, the question is how publishers should react to this situation," notes Dan Strempel, senior editor of Professional Content Report. "Do they treat piracy as part of the cost of doing business in the Internet age, or do they try and recoup piracy losses from paying customers by raising prices? It would be extremely challenging for publishers to do the latter, considering the economic pressures in the scholarly/professional system."
Quantifying the loss associated with this piracy remains a challenge. Findings suggest as much as $1.7 million in potential revenue is lost per title in the technical segment and about $1 million per title in the science segment. According to the article, progress is being made through trade associations and cooperation between publishers; however, there remains a greater need of public awareness, government resources and collective effort to effectively combat book piracy.
"Until someone puts the 'force' in international copyright enforcement, they might just have to learn to deal with it," notes Strempel.
Yoga piracy: India shows who's the guru
India is going all out to save yoga — a 2,000-year-old art of righteous living, from western pirates.
Instances of self-styled yoga gurus claiming copyrights to ancient 'asanas', especially from the West, is now becoming rampant. This has made 200 scientists and researchers from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Union health ministry's department of Ayush join hands to put on record all known yoga postures and techniques that originated in India.
Scientists are presently scanning through 35 ancient Sanskrit texts, including the Mahabharata, Bhagawad Gita and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali to identify and document all known yoga concepts, postures and terminology.
Till now, 600 'asanas' (physical postures) have already been documented. The team plans to put on record at least 1,500 such yoga postures by the end of 2009.
Once completed, they will be put in the world's first Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) created by India. They will then be recognised as India's public property.
The TKDL, 30 million pages of information, has been created to prevent those living abroad from claiming patent for existing knowledge.
Patent offices across the world are being given access to the database in TKDL "for establishing prior art" whenever patent applications based on Indian systems of medicine (ISM) are filed.
However, TKDL's information will be restricted only for patent search and examination purposes. Patent offices will not be able to disclose the information to a third party.
TKDL already contains two lakh medical formulations of Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani.
CSIR's Dr V P Gupta, who created TKDL, told TOI: "Around nine well known yoga institutions in India are helping with the documentation. We hope to finish putting on record at least 1,500 yoga postures by the end of 2009."
"Besides photos and explanation of the postures, video clips of an expert performing them will be put inside the TKDL. A voice-over will also point out which text mentions the posture. The information will be available in five international languages."
Among the books being scanned by scientists are Hatha Praditika, Gheranda Samhita, Shiva Samhita and Sandra Satkarma. The oldest book being documented may be the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, according to Dr Gupta.
'Asana' is only one of the eight limbs of yoga outlined by the sage Patanjali around 2,000 years ago.
"Till now, TKDL has cost around Rs 7 crore. Around Rs 3 crore more will be required to create the yoga databank, which will be available to patent offices by the end of 2009," Dr Gupta said.
He added: "Copyrights over yoga postures and trademark on yoga tools have becoming rampant in the West. Till now, we have traced 130 yoga-related patents granted in the US."
According to CSIR DG, Prof Samir Brahmchari, on an average, it takes five to seven years to oppose a patent granted internationally and costs Rs 1-3 crore.
Experts say yoga has become a $225 billion market in the West, leading to foreign quack yoga instructors claiming patents over `asanas' at random. Nearly 16.5 million Americans practice yoga and spend about $3 billion a year on yoga classes.
Instances of self-styled yoga gurus claiming copyrights to ancient 'asanas', especially from the West, is now becoming rampant. This has made 200 scientists and researchers from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Union health ministry's department of Ayush join hands to put on record all known yoga postures and techniques that originated in India.
Scientists are presently scanning through 35 ancient Sanskrit texts, including the Mahabharata, Bhagawad Gita and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali to identify and document all known yoga concepts, postures and terminology.
Till now, 600 'asanas' (physical postures) have already been documented. The team plans to put on record at least 1,500 such yoga postures by the end of 2009.
Once completed, they will be put in the world's first Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) created by India. They will then be recognised as India's public property.
The TKDL, 30 million pages of information, has been created to prevent those living abroad from claiming patent for existing knowledge.
Patent offices across the world are being given access to the database in TKDL "for establishing prior art" whenever patent applications based on Indian systems of medicine (ISM) are filed.
However, TKDL's information will be restricted only for patent search and examination purposes. Patent offices will not be able to disclose the information to a third party.
TKDL already contains two lakh medical formulations of Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani.
CSIR's Dr V P Gupta, who created TKDL, told TOI: "Around nine well known yoga institutions in India are helping with the documentation. We hope to finish putting on record at least 1,500 yoga postures by the end of 2009."
"Besides photos and explanation of the postures, video clips of an expert performing them will be put inside the TKDL. A voice-over will also point out which text mentions the posture. The information will be available in five international languages."
Among the books being scanned by scientists are Hatha Praditika, Gheranda Samhita, Shiva Samhita and Sandra Satkarma. The oldest book being documented may be the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, according to Dr Gupta.
'Asana' is only one of the eight limbs of yoga outlined by the sage Patanjali around 2,000 years ago.
"Till now, TKDL has cost around Rs 7 crore. Around Rs 3 crore more will be required to create the yoga databank, which will be available to patent offices by the end of 2009," Dr Gupta said.
He added: "Copyrights over yoga postures and trademark on yoga tools have becoming rampant in the West. Till now, we have traced 130 yoga-related patents granted in the US."
According to CSIR DG, Prof Samir Brahmchari, on an average, it takes five to seven years to oppose a patent granted internationally and costs Rs 1-3 crore.
Experts say yoga has become a $225 billion market in the West, leading to foreign quack yoga instructors claiming patents over `asanas' at random. Nearly 16.5 million Americans practice yoga and spend about $3 billion a year on yoga classes.
Piracy causes $1 bn loss to Indian entertainment industry
Did you know that an estimated 600 million pirated DVDs are sold in India every year compared to only 20 million original ones? Industry insiders quote these figures pointing to the huge losses inflicted on the entertainment industry by the piracy menace.
"The size of the Indian film industry is $2 billion. Hollywood film 'Avatar' alone has done a business of over $2 billion in just a year. That is how small our film industry is and on top of that, piracy eats up half the profits," said Hiren Gada , director of Shemaroo Entertainment .
Harish Dayani , chief executive-entertainment of Moser Baer India Ltd , who is credited with denting the piracy market, does not reveal a rosy picture either.
"Only 20 million legitimate DVDs are sold every year in India compared to 600 million pirated DVDs. And each of these pirated DVDs contains up to five films," he said.
Countering the point that the price of DVDs is a deciding factor, Dayani said, "Money is definitely not the question! Piracy is a function of the value system - of a consumer in society, of enforcement in society and the quality of a country."
"Forty percent of the film business in the US is through the sale of its DVDs while in India it is barely five to eight percent, thanks to piracy. And you ask why we don't make lavish sets, or bigger budget films. The overall impact of piracy on the entertainment business is anywhere between $1 and $2 billion," said Gada.
The connection between piracy and other local crimes and global terrorism, with piracy being used to fund them, has also been well established.
Prakash Nathan, vice president-operations in UTV Motion Pictures, meanwhile spoke of the formation of the Alliance Against Copyright Theft (AACT).
He said, "We raid street vendors, internet and online piracy, camcorder piracy in theatres. We have people on the ground who have conducted about 100 raids in the last six months with 110 arrests so far and 400,000 of DVDs being seized.
"We have hired consultants to track IP addresses. We have a toll free number, 18001031919, which anyone can dial and the enforcement directorate will ensure that the pirated shop is down."
Savio D'Souza, secretary general of the industry organisation Indian Music Industry (IMI), however, spoke of a different approach to piracy.
"We are working on a model where a pirate can walk into an IMI office in the country, and get a legitimate licence to sell music and DVDs. Simply penalisation will not work considering the vastness of our country and the large number of shops selling them," said D'Souza.
He said shops that sell pirated material, do not necessarily do it out of choice, but because they often do not have any choice. And giving them a chance to convert first is more appropriate.
He gave examples of 2,000 mobile shop sellers who would load a customer's mobile with pirated songs, but convert it when told how adversely their actions affect the industry and the nation.
All these veterans participated in a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)- organised 4th International Conference on counterfeiting and piracy here.
"The size of the Indian film industry is $2 billion. Hollywood film 'Avatar' alone has done a business of over $2 billion in just a year. That is how small our film industry is and on top of that, piracy eats up half the profits," said Hiren Gada , director of Shemaroo Entertainment .
Harish Dayani , chief executive-entertainment of Moser Baer India Ltd , who is credited with denting the piracy market, does not reveal a rosy picture either.
"Only 20 million legitimate DVDs are sold every year in India compared to 600 million pirated DVDs. And each of these pirated DVDs contains up to five films," he said.
Countering the point that the price of DVDs is a deciding factor, Dayani said, "Money is definitely not the question! Piracy is a function of the value system - of a consumer in society, of enforcement in society and the quality of a country."
"Forty percent of the film business in the US is through the sale of its DVDs while in India it is barely five to eight percent, thanks to piracy. And you ask why we don't make lavish sets, or bigger budget films. The overall impact of piracy on the entertainment business is anywhere between $1 and $2 billion," said Gada.
The connection between piracy and other local crimes and global terrorism, with piracy being used to fund them, has also been well established.
Prakash Nathan, vice president-operations in UTV Motion Pictures, meanwhile spoke of the formation of the Alliance Against Copyright Theft (AACT).
He said, "We raid street vendors, internet and online piracy, camcorder piracy in theatres. We have people on the ground who have conducted about 100 raids in the last six months with 110 arrests so far and 400,000 of DVDs being seized.
"We have hired consultants to track IP addresses. We have a toll free number, 18001031919, which anyone can dial and the enforcement directorate will ensure that the pirated shop is down."
Savio D'Souza, secretary general of the industry organisation Indian Music Industry (IMI), however, spoke of a different approach to piracy.
"We are working on a model where a pirate can walk into an IMI office in the country, and get a legitimate licence to sell music and DVDs. Simply penalisation will not work considering the vastness of our country and the large number of shops selling them," said D'Souza.
He said shops that sell pirated material, do not necessarily do it out of choice, but because they often do not have any choice. And giving them a chance to convert first is more appropriate.
He gave examples of 2,000 mobile shop sellers who would load a customer's mobile with pirated songs, but convert it when told how adversely their actions affect the industry and the nation.
All these veterans participated in a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)- organised 4th International Conference on counterfeiting and piracy here.
Trade sees red as book piracy flourishes
It’s a common enough sight: roadside-vendors selling cheap versions of the most popular books in print. From Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code to Paulo Cohelo’s The Alchemist, pirated books have and continue to find a steady clientele among book lovers. And despite frequent raids staged by the police, people in the trade say that most culprits remain undeterred.Legal Hassles
Recently, the Intellectual Property Cell of the Delhi Police Crime Branch cracked down on suppliers of pirated books at traffic lights in Delhi. Officials say they arrested a person called Krishandev, based in Mayur Vihar and Subodh, who owned a shop at Statesman Building in Connaught Place and a warehouse at Mandawali. These two are allegedly the main suppliers of pirated books to sellers at traffic lights.
But the problem lies in lax laws. In the absence of any specific laws to deal with piracy, even if someone is caught, he can easily get bail, since it comes under the bailable-offenses category. So all in all, the police say there is not much they can really do to stop the mushrooming business.
Booming Business
Apart from lax laws, good economic returns make piracy a lucrative trade for some people. As Keemti Lal, one of the pavement book-vendors at Daryaganj, says, ‘‘There is a huge demand for low-priced (read pirated) copies of popular literature. We acquire these books from different ‘sources’ and further distribute to street vendors, keeping about Rs 20 per book as our profit.’’
Eighteen-year-old Chhotu Lal agrees. Lal, who has a group of six boys working under him at various intersections in central and east Delhi, believes the huge profit margins makes it worthwhile for him to stay in the piracy trade. As he shrugs, ‘‘My elder brother runs an auto-rickshaw and my father is a bus driver. Both of them are not able to earn as much as I am earning in this trade.’’
Lal explains that he gets these books for as low as Rs 30-40 and on an average, sells them off for Rs 100 each. ‘‘So even if my boys get three customers a day, I can make up to Rs 700-800 a day, after paying Rs 50 to each of them as their daily wages.’’
Modus Operandi
The modus operandi of book piracy is very easy. Reveals a famous roadside vendor at Ber Sarai market, on condition of anonymity, a person just has to get one original version, key in the entire text and give it to any local printer.
For the cover, get it photocopied. Bind it all together and you have a book! In fact, the vendor says the Internet has made life a lot easier. ‘We don’t even have to key in the entire text. Mostly, we get soft copies of popular literature online.’’
So sophisticated has book piracy become that most people are unable to differentiate between originals and pirated works. This is also because the paper used is almost identical. But there is one thing book pirates do not do.
Says a printer requesting anonymity, ‘‘We generally remove the title page of the book from the pirated copies, which mentions details of the owner of copyright, name & address of publisher & printer, a mandatory requirement under the Indian Copyright Law.’’ In this way the pirates manage to avoid being caught.
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