Viacom18 pursues criminal action against movie piracy

The member of a media entertainment house caught a 30-year-old engineer allegedly recording the Aamir Khan starrer Laal Singh Chaddha for a piracy website.

However, the Banaswadi police are yet to arrive at a conclusion about the motive as the recording was deleted and they have now sent the mobile phone to FSL to retrieve the data.

On Friday, Suryavamshi R., a representative of Viacom 18, filed a complaint with the Banaswadi police station against the suspect Jebastephenraj J. after he was caught allegedly recording the movie at a theatre.

The complainant alleged that the accused was part of the organised crime syndicate operating to upload and distribute films and other pirated content on apps and social media.

Such pirate websites cause huge losses to the producers, content owners and creators by virtue of their illegal acts, the complainant said.

Recently, in a pre-emptive action to curb piracy and infringement of content, Viacom18 secured injunctive reliefs from the Madras High Court against a host of more than 12,000 specified websites/links, specified cable operators, internet service providers as well as unknown persons restraining them from infringing Laal Singh Chaddha or any part thereof by copying, recording, reproducing, distributing, or downloading, etc. in any manner whatsoever without proper license from the producer(s) of the film.

The police, however, are awaiting reports from the FSL to ascertain the exact role of Jebastephenraj. Presently, he has been booked under copyright act and cinematography act and has been released on bail. The Hindu