Watching pirated print of movies cannot be considered as a crime, says Bombay High Court!
One of the most serious issues that the Cinema Industry in our country is facing for last few years is the issue of piracy. The pirated print of the movies comes on the internet and many times it comes on the internet on the release day of the movies itself. Sometimes the censored copy of the movie leaks online and spreads all over through various sites. People downloads those prints and spreads it like wildfire intentionally or unintentionally. Cyber laws are there, but most of the times, nobody gets caught and the piracy mafia is going great as well. Now, Bombay high court also said that watching pirated print cannot be considered as a crime.
Justice Gautham said that as per copyright act, no one can be blamed for watching a pirated print. It becomes a crime if someone makes a copy of it and screen it or sell it. The court had made this statement while they were considering the case filed by the team behind the Bollywood movie named Dishoom related to the piracy issue. The court said that the complete URL has to be blocked if we find pirated prints in a specific site and those sites have to be blacklisted and blocked. People can’t be blamed for downloading or watching a pirated print. The ones who uploads in it into the online sites has to be punished with imprisonment and fine.
