The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved an amendment to the Cinematograph Act, 1952, to tackle the menace of film piracy and copyright infringement making penal provisions of three-year jail term or Rs10 lakh fine or both.
Addressing the media, Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "If one, without authorisation, undertakes digital duplication of various creative works or by any other means of digital technology, one can be made to suffer three-year jail punishment and Rs10 lakh fine."
This step will help our film industry in dealing with the menace of piracy, he said.
The Producers' Guild of India applauded the government's move.
Welcoming the amendment, Siddharth Roy Kapur, president, Producers' Guild of India said in a statement, "This is a signficant move to protect intellectual property in our country. This communicates to all stakeholders that as a country, we respect and reward innovation and creativity, and will ensure that the rights of the owners and creators of this intellectual property are safeguarded."