Kerala police cracks down on film piracy, case against 1000

In a major crackdown on online film piracy, Kerala Police have registered cases against more than 1000 persons for allegedly uploading or downloading recently-released Malayalam movie Bachelor Party.

The Anti-piracy Cell of the state police traced the IP addresses of a total of 1,010 persons who illegally uploaded or downloaded or viewed the film on net.

According to police sources, cases have been registered against all of them.

The state police claimed that that this was the biggest crackdown on internet piracy of an Indian film. Investigations were conducted with the technical support of a Kochi-based firm, which specialises in cyber patrolling, sources said.

In the last ten days, about 30,000 persons from within and outside the country had viewed on internet the film, directed by Amal Neerad and starring Prithviraj, Rahman, Asif Ali and Nithya Menon.

Not only those in India, but persons based in the US, the UK, the UAE, South Africa, China and Uganda had seen the movie on internet, sources said.

In India, the movie was watched from cities like New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Coimbatore, Lucknow, Bangalore and Mumbai besides major cities in Kerala.

A Tamil Nadu-based film website was also among those facing legal charges, police said.

The investigation was conducted on the basis of a complaint by one Sajithan, who had secured the CD, DVD and internet and mobile rights of the movie.

The Malayalam film industry has been complaining that internet and video piracy is a grievous problem faced by it.

The film chamber and actors' and technician associations have been pressing the government to crackdown on pirate groups as illegal uploading and downloading have been causing severe financial crisis to the industry as a whole.