Singapore anti-piracy body calls on Bollywood, IT firms
Nivedita Mookerji
Saturday, March 21, 2009 2:34 IST

New Delhi: Singapore-based Centre for Content Protection (CCP) is exploring membership possibilities in India to promote legal digital distribution of movies and to prevent piracy. "In India, the IT sector must get together with the film industry to curb movie piracy," CCP director Isa Seow told DNA.

CCP has already initiated talks with telecom and IT companies based in India. "It will be really wonderful if we find a connect between Bangalore's IT companies and Bollywood people to better enable new consumer models," Seow said. CCP officials were in the capital for the Convergence India Summit.

CCP was set up more than a year ago, backed by the Media Development Authority of the Singapore government.

Watermarking and fingerprinting are among the methods used by the CCP to ensure lawful digital distribution of films and for anti-piracy operation.

Ultimately, film companies and TV firms want to reach out to as many people as possible, but at a nominal charge, Seow said.

"Our latest initiative is the proposal to work on the interoperable home-networking environment. So, if you get movies from your satellite, you can move it to your car, your second home, your mobile, wherever. Most of the time, you pay for one copy," Seow said. "When you buy a licensed digital copy, you can move it to whatever device you have." This move is meant to prevent illegal downloading of movies from the internet.

Pricing issues are handled by the Motion Picture Association (MPA), which is one of the 22 members of the CCP. Other members include Microsoft, NDS, Astro, Walt Disney and Time Warner.

A digital movie can be watched legally for just $1.5 (less than a ticket price at a multiplex, perhaps), Seow said. "But, one is charged depending on what one wants to do, maybe if you want to burn it, you pay $2. If you want to watch it for 24 hours, you pay $3, hypothetically speaking." The beauty of a secure distribution system is that one pays for what one wants to do, the CCP official said.

According to CCP, the industry worldwide has responded to its initiatives.

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