IMI has been regularly conducting training programmes on IP enforcement in India and had the distinction of conducting 150 training programmes in different parts of the country in the last three years with the twin purpose of training the ground-level police officers and explaining to them the importance of enforcement of IPR laws in the country in the national and international context. The police department has appreciated the initiative taken by IMI and as a result, anti-piracy operations across centers have witnessed a major boom.

Intellectual Property (IP) is defined “as any original creative work manifested in a tangible or intangible form that should be legally protected”. The rights associated with intellectual property give legal protection to the work thereby being referred to as Intellectual Property Rights. PPL and IPRS, two important bodies related to licensing were also part of the training programme.

The Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS) is a non-profit and non-commercial association of over 1500 composers, lyricists and sound publishers working with IMI. IPRS has been instrumental in clarifying the ownership of Musical Rights in India through continuous dialogue with related industry associations. The Phonographic Performance Licensing (PPL), also a non-profit non-commercial organisation, is affiliated to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. It carries out collective administrations of copyrights for sound recording of music companies incorporated in India and members and original copyright owners of the published work.

After the successful completion of the training programme, Savio D’Souza, Secretary-General, IMI, said, “This is a good start towards sensitising the police officials and we are overwhelmed by the support of the Maharashtra Police. Piracy today is robbing our nation of this cultural heritage by theft of the creative input. In the interest of the music industry’s survival, we are working closely with the Indian government and are trying to rid the country of this menace. We intend to spread more awareness on this critical issue through such forums and we will conduct more such training programmes across India with the support of the local state police forces.”

Last year IMI with the assistance of the police conducted over 3000 raids. IMI has also been in touch with the prosecution machinery and this has helped in ironing out deficiencies in investigation and prosecution of cases. It is because of the close co-ordination of the police and prosecution machinery that a court in Delhi sealed the biggest CDR unit indulging in piracy. The plant was worth Rs. 25 crores when it was sealed. IMI is ranked as the third most effective anti-piracy team in the world and is a consortium of about 142 music companies. It represents the recording industry of India and is affiliated to IFPI, the World Industry body having 1,450 members in 75 countries and industry organisations in 48 countries. PPL is the exclusive Copyright Society engaged in the business of music licensing of the recording industry, with affiliates in 45 countries of the World.

The Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) is a non-profit and non-commercial organisation and deals with telecasting and Public Performance rights on behalf of Indian Music Companies as well as Foreign Member Music Companies. This includes Music recorded in any format (Visual or Acoustic) or communicated by way of a Radio, a Worldspace receiver, Cable network or a Television set.