Piracy causes loss of Rs 16,000 crores and eight lakh jobs

Mumbai, Mar 27 (UNI) At least Rs 16,000 crores and as many as eight lakh direct jobs are lost due to piracy every year in the country, afflicting the country's entertainment and media industry, findings of a new study undertaken by Ernst&Young for the US-India Business Council (USIBC) has revealed.

Quoting the report of this study, at a media briefing on the third and concluding day of the FICCI-FRAMES convention on the business of the Indian Entertainment and Media (E&M) industry here today, the USIBC President Ron Somers said, ''This is an enormous and unacceptable magnitude of loss by any measure.'' Advocating the need to frame optical disc legislation in India, he said that this will help combat the menace of piracy.

He stated that the study, commissioned by the USIBC-FICCI Bollywood-Hollywood Initiative, covers films, music, television and video games and has been funded by the Global Intellectual Property Centre of the US Chamber of Commerce, which aims to highlight the value of intellectual property as well as the adverse impact theft and piracy have on creativity and innovation.

The FICCI Secretary General Amit Mitra said this study shows that the best way to make the boom is to stop the affliction of piracy.

The Indian E&M already generates more than 11 UD Dollar annually for the country with a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of over 18 per cent for the last four years and if we stop piracy the industry will grow even faster, he added.

As a part of the Bollywood-Hollywood Initiative, a special documentary film, Illicit-The Dark Trade, produced by National Geographic was also shown to mediapersons.

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