CHENNAI: In a bid to check video piracy , the Madras high court directed the state home secretary and the DGP to conduct a meeting of all stake-holders, including film producers, distributors and exhibitors, to arrive at an amicable solution.

Justice Puspha Sathyanarayana issued the interim direction on a plea moved by Film Exhibitors Association, which wanted the court to restrain police from arresting theatre owners on complaints of unauthorised recording of movies by viewers. According to the petitioner, whenever there is a complaint that a movie screened in a theatre was being recorded unauthorizedly, owners of such theatres were arrested without due inquiry. Such arrests should not be permitted unless, after due inquiry, there is a prima facie evidence to show that such illegal recording was done at the best of or with the connivance of such owner, the petitioner-association said.

“The film producers were filing complaints against theatre owners falsely accusing the latter as being responsible for such piracy and the resulting losses caused to the film producers. Police were arresting or attempting to arrest the theatre owners merely on the basis of such complaints, without any enquiry. This makes the theatre owner to run from pillar to post to obtain appropriate bail or anticipatory bail. The theatre owners cannot be made responsible for all cases of piracy,” the association said.

The organisation said that when digital prints of films were supplied to theatres, service providers would leave a hi-tech watermark on the prints which could be detected by experts while viewing the film on screen. Such watermarks will also be retrievable by experts from any copies made from such prints. From such watermarks, the experts can detect the time and the theatre from where a pirated copy was made. With this information complaints were being arbitrarily filed against the theatre owners concerned, the association added.

Claiming that in most of the cases, pirated copies were made in a theatre from the auditorium, by the audience, while the film was being exhibited, the petitioner said, it was impossible to check or control the audience entering with cameras on phones, pens and spectacles. Opposing the plea, public prosecutor A Natarajan submitted that the petitioner’s prayer could not be entertained, as there could not be a blanket ban on such arrests order.

