Piracy termite paralyzing Nepali Music

The drum resounding “Stop Piracy, Save Music” always beats at loud volumes but the problem of music piracy and selling of MP3s illegally has made the Nepali music and even movie industry paralyzed. In every interview I’ve taken when asked to tell something to the audience almost every artist repeats the cliché “Stop Piracy, Save Music” but what are they doing to put some brakes to this rising problem? Not only the artists as the termite of music and movie piracy is eating up the Nepali music and movie scene from the inside day by day what are the concerned parties like music companies, music company association, film development company, government authorities and even general public doing to tackle the problem?

The pocket Oxford dictionary defines “piracy” as infringement of copyright etc so let’s analyze what is the situation of the copyright law/act in our country before digging more in this issue. The copyright act 2002 of Nepal Chapter 5(2) states “Registration of a work, sound recording, performance or broadcasting shall not be required to acquire the right under this Act.”, so even if the singer or music company has not registered the album or movie in the copyright Registrar office the infringement can be claimed and penalized upon. The act clearly mentions in Section 25(1)(A) - “To reproduce copies of a work or sound recording and sell and distribute them or publicly communicate or rent them with commercial or any other motive with or without deriving economic benefits without authorization of the author or the copyright owner or by infringing the terms contained in the agreement or license notwithstanding that such authorization has been obtained” , so there is clear violation of copyright when a music shop copies songs from an audio CD to MP3 format compiles 10 plus albums in one CD and sells it to the buyer.

So if anyone copies and sells it to the public s/he is liable to following punishment as per Section 27 of the act:
(1) In cases where any person infringes Section 25, such a person shall be punished with a fine of a sum from ten thousand to one hundred thousand rupees or with imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or both and with a fine of a sum from twenty thousand to two hundred thousand rupees or with imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or with both for each instance from the second time. The materials so published or reproduced or distributed or devices used to reproduce such materials shall be seized.
(2) Compensation for the loss caused to the copyright owner by the infringer of the protected right shall also be realized and provided to the copyright owner.
In this scenario if a shopkeeper copies say 10 audio albums and compiles it into a MP3 then s/he can be charge up to Rs. 10 lakhs as s/he is violating copyright on 10 different products with around 5 years of jail or both. As per Section 27(2) more penalties can be charged to the guilty. But with such strong laws what are the law enforcers doing about it?

In a recent case, when Reeyaz music started the revolt against piracy it was not fully supported by the concerned authorities from law enforcers to other music industry stakeholders says Mr. Rajiv, Proprietor Of Reeyaz Music. He adds “After raising this issue in the music company association and being tired of the bureaucracy and tortoise pace to act against the issue I myself took the lead and using my own company’s letter head caught some music pirate shop keepers and put them in jail”. The tells it invited lots of problems for him but sadly none of the stake holders of the music industry like the music company association or other music companies stood by his side on that dark moment. He adds piracy is eating up the industry and the culture to take back returned cassettes and CDs leads to huge losses for a music company.
He asks “How can a music company even survive in such hard conditions?”.  He further supplements “We have to invest so much from recording to marketing an album but just playing promos and songs in the programs does not guarantee high sales of the album, also due to piracy and MP3 culture no one is buying the originals but artists don’t understand. They tell my promos are on air and my songs are being played why is not my album sale high? The answer is piracy but we music companies are in the pivot of the problem”. He is quick to point that its not only awareness all people know that piracy is a crime and its no different than stealing something from a shop just the difference is in a tangible and non tangible asset. But the tragedy of the problem he laments is people know and they still do it, what a pity. Due to this problem he even slashed the rates of CDs to just Rs. eighty five but still the problem prevails so he want the government and all concerned authorities and stakeholders to join hands against this potentially lethal problem that can even take their survival path away from them.

In this scenario, we must be aware that if the problem continues to grow at this rapid pace then one day we will have to say "there was a music and film industry in Nepal", so lets all promote the original and help save the artists and the industry.