Bill to curb piracy soon: minister

A new convergence bill that supercedes all the different laws for telecom, telephone, internet, broadcasting, cable TV and broadband will be placed before the Parliament in the next session. The bill, which will set up a regulatory framework for the telecom and broadcasting media, will take care of piracy of all material, by making it compulsory for cable operators to show only legal material, failing which they will face stringent punishment.

Announcing this at a dinner hosted on June 20 by the Film Cell of the Bharatiya Janata Party in collaboration with the All India Film Producers Council, information and broadcasting minister, Arun Jaitley, told filmfolk that the draft of the convergence bill was ready. He reminded producers that their problems cannot be seen in isolation of information technology as multiple options have been thrown open to them. “In terms of television there will be more than 100 channels and in terms of music there will be FM channels in every district from which the film industry can earn much more money than it earns from the theatrical circuits.
Very soon, digital terrestrial television will be set up in the four major cities in India. DTH facility will also find a reach of 90 per cent in the country. And the government’s job is that of a facilitator,” he said.

Subhash Ghai reminded the minister how previous ministers had also promised the moon, and failed to deliver. He asked Jaitley to bring in legislation to curb the menace of video and cable piracy, and bring films under the concurrent list so that entertainment tax may be uniform in all the states.

Vinod Tawde, president of the BJP film cell assured all help to the film industry. He said the cell would act as a bridge between the industry and the government at the centre. Earlier Sudhir Nandgaonkar, in charge of the Film Cell and Pahlaj Nihalani, president of the All India Film Producers Council welcomed the guests.