Music Piracy

Piracy is the unauthorized duplication of an original recording for commercial gain without the consent of the rights owner. The packaging of pirate copies is different from the original. Pirate copies are often compilations, such as the "greatest hits" of a specific artist, or a collection of a specific genre, such as dance tracks. 

Music industry supplies the intellectual raw material for movies and plays, as well as for education and recreation in general, and they have helped to bring about a dramatic increase in the productivity through the aiding of new creations.

Together the new information and communication technologies(ICTs) and in particular the internet, have enabled unauthorized creation of unlimited, perfect and costless copies of protected works, as well as their almost instantaneous and worldwide distribution, which poses an unprecedented challenge to copyright law. .

Peer to peer (P2P) file sharing on the internet, allowing users to copy MP3 files (files that store audio recordings in a digital format) directly from the hard drive of another user without the need.

We need to take a comprehensive and holistic approach. The challenges posed by internet and digital medium are fascinating, which have dazzled the law and policy makers and put many questions, which still elude answers. These challenges must be met by putting in place a workable IP(intellectual property) regime in our national interest.

Copyright infringement and its abetment is a criminal offence under section 63 of the copyright act,1957. Along with digitalization, networking and world wide web have changed the copyright regime fundamentally:

* Digitalization of information and communication has made reproduction easy

* Networking of computers has rendered distribution of copyrighted work easy

* World Wide Web has made publication of copyrighted material very easy.

Copyright protection covers all ‘literacy and artistic works’ such as writings, including scientific...