Cracking down on Bollywood film piracy

In a recent case in Auckland, the Court awarded substantial damages for copyright infringement and granted a permanent injunction to prevent further importation, sale and hire of pirated Bollywood films.

India arguably has the largest film industry in the world, turning out over 800 films a year. The industry's capital - known as "Bollywood" - is in Mumbai, the sprawling city formerly known as Bombay. Bollywood films are typically love stories incorporating numerous song and dance sequences. They have a style all of their own which has gathered a cult following outside India with westerners as well as film lovers of Indian descent.

As a result of the growing popularity of Bollywood movies there is an international market for the films, and consequently a growing number of pirate copies being produced on DVD. Many of the Bollywood films currently available in New Zealand are pirate copies.

Under the Copyright Act, the owner of copyright in a film has the exclusive right to copy the film, to issue the film to the public (by sale or hire), to show the film in public, and to authorise any other person to do such things. Copyright is infringed by any other person who does any of those (or other restricted) acts without a licence from the copyright owner. In addition to primary infringements of copyright, the Copyright Act provides for secondary copyright infringement by people who deal in infringing films (or other copyright works). Importing a pirated film by any person who knows or ought reasonably to have known that it is an infringing copy constitutes secondary copyright infringement. Possessing a pirate film in the course of business, and offering a pirate film for sale or hire in the course of business, also constitute secondary copyright infringement. In proceedings for copyright infringement, the Court may award additional damages having regard to the flagrancy of the infringement and any benefit accruing to the defendant.

Auckland's Capitol Cinema is the exclusive distributor in New Zealand for Bollywood films produced by the three largest Mumbai production houses, Eros International, Venus Records, and Yash Raj Films. These parties collectively issued Court proceedings against five retailers who were selling, offering for sale, hiring, and offering for hire in New Zealand pirated copies of Bollywood movies for which Eros, Venus and Yash Raj owned the copyright and Capitol Cinema was the exclusive official distributor.

In a recent decision of the Manukau District Court, Judge Robert Kerr ordered the retailers and individuals who were named as the defendants in the proceeding to pay compensatory and exemplary damages of more than $185,000.

Equally importantly, the Court issued an injunction restraining the defendants from importing, hiring or selling in future any films in which Eros International, Venus Records or Yash Raj Films owned copyright.

A number of similar cases are being brought against other retailers.

The success of such cases should encourage other copyright owners to take action to enforce their rights and to recover damages for infringement of their intellectual property rights.

Enquiries and information

For more information on piracy, breach of copyright and intellectual property issues, please email or call Alan Ringwood on 64 9 916 8925.