MUMBAI: In a move to combat the rampant mobile chip piracy, The Indian Music Industry (IMI) launched a new division in Andhra Pradesh- Music Mobile Exchange (MMX). Joining hands of IMI in this initiative are 7 members including Saregama, Aditya Music, Tips, Venus, EMI, Sony and Universal which account for a significant share of the copyright titles being pirated.

Through the new division MMX, mobile stores and other shopkeepers can become legitimate by opting for a MMX licence from the right holders and sell music without violating the Copyright Act. The license can be taken for a period of 1 to 3 years at a minimal cost which ranges from Rs. 1500- 5,000 per month/per computer depending on the kind of shop and location of the shop. An independent survey conducted by IMI indicates that an average shopkeeper earns Rs 7500-12500 each month by music downloads and other music applications thus making the licence fee a reasonable amount and a profitable business for the shop owners.

IMI has registered more than 1000 cases against mobile chip piracy  If convicted punishment ranges from 6  month to 3 years and fines from Rs.50,000/- to Rs.2,00,000/- .According to IMI, the music industry of India losses more than Rs. 300 cr each year, only by mobile chip piracy.

The programme was launched in Andhra Pradesh as it has the largest user base for mobile phones and recorded largest number of mobile chip piracy cases registered in India. Commenting on this issue IMI Secretary General Savio D'Souza says, Mobile phones and chips are growing at a phenomenal pace and India should have the largest base of mobile phone users in the next few years. Each of these users requires music on their phones  The numbers of shopkeepers are currently offering these services illegally and making million of rupees  The 7 major members of the music industry have offered a legitimate partnership opportunity for these shop keepers and we hope a number of shop keepers will partner with us to obtain the license  In case these shop keepers do not obtain the licences, anti-piracy action will continue unabated....

The size of the music market on mobile phones is very big. The legitimate market at present is estimated to be Rs.300 crores that includes products like ring tones, true tones, ring back tones, full song mobile downloads, music videos etc.

With India currently having more than 400 million mobile subscribers and approximately 45-50% of the phone models in the market are capable of music transfers, music piracy has assumed a Mobile Chip Piracy avatar. Digitized music can be easily copied from any storage device like computer hard disc or USB drive, mobile phone with stored music etc. into the built in memory of a mobile phone or on memory cards or chips which can be further inserted into other mobile phones. When such activity is done for commercial gain without the permission of the copyright owners it is the violation of Copyright act 1957 and is termed as �Mobile Chip Piracy'.

Indian Music Industry (IMI) is the first enforcement agency in the world to acknowledge this new format of piracy.

The Indian Music Industry (IMI) with an intention to uphold the interest of creative phonogram producers in India is a consortium of over 142 music companies including several prominent regional and national labels such as Saregama, Universal Music, Tips, Venus, BMG Crescendo, Sangeetha, Sony Music, Virgin, Aditya Music acting through their principal officers and representing over 75 per cent of the output in legitimate recordings and a wide range of musical repertoire.