MUMBAI: The Indian Music Industry (IMI) organised a training programme for police officers of Maharashtra to raise awareness about Intellectual Property Rights and the importance of its protection on Tuesday.

The programme was attended by over 100 police officers, representatives from 90 police stations in Mumbai suburbs stations, 30 crime branch officials, 30 social service branch officials, and some top rank police officers, including joint commissioner of Police, DCPs etc.

According to DCP Enforcement Sanjay Mohite, Police officers need to be made aware of intellectual property issues and the intricacies involved in it. It is important to educate the law enforcers of Intellectual Property to know about the law and implementation of the law....

Said retired Mumbai police commissioner Julio Rebeiro, who is also the advisor to the IMI-PPL on the anti piracy movement, Young people, who used to invest in music, don't buy the products any more. The music sales have come down because the younger generation is resorting to cheap or free options like downloads, FM radio, peer to peer transfer etc. instead of spending money on buying the originals. So, the music company needs to find models to protect the intellectual property and rights of the owners.

This problem isn't limited to only India but is a universal problem. Abroad, the scene is a bit better where the singers are earning by their IP rights. Big companies had made huge losses in the past due to piracy but IMI has been instrumental in making the piracy manageable....

The panel, comprising Rebeiro, IMI president V J Lazarus and IMI secretary general Savio D'Souza concurred that the solution, provided by many is to reduce the price of the CDs but said it is impossible to compete with the pirates. The music labels launch the product, spend in marketing it, royalty costs, pay taxes etc and need to recover it. On the other hand, the pirate escapes everything and can afford to sell his product at a cheaper cost. If the music companies reduce their prices they would soon need to wind up their businesses, the panel concluded.

Rebeiro later told Radioandmusic.com, The IMI has set up anti-piracy cells in every state, met the political and ureaucratic leaders, conducted workshop for magistrates, police officials, judges from High courts to enlighten them about the copyright issues. We don't have the authority to take action, so whenever we need enforcement of laws we need to approach the police....

Piracy ensures a pattern with regards to the economic development of a country in response to the consumer looking for value of his money over and above his willingness to pay for an original product. It is not viable option in such a scenario to spend on creating awareness when our resources are limited and in such cases enforcement works better than awareness,... Lazarus told Radioandmusic.com.

He said, If there is no enforcement, the quantum of that violence increases. Countries like Pakistan, Srilanka, Bangladesh have no enforcement so there is no music industry. But in India due to enforcement, piracy is manageable and we are still able to retain the industry....

The entire police force is sensitive to what we are doing, cooperation exists in every state but it depends on the time and resources as well, it is a crime which has long term consequences to the industry and the economy of the country with no immediate law and order so we cant expect the police to take action on their own,... he added.

After the successful completion of the training programme, IMI Secretary General Savio D'Souza said, "We are overwhelmed by the support of Maharashtra Police for conducting our anti-piracy raids. In the interest of the music induatry's survival, we are working closely with the Indian Government and are trying to relieve the country of this menace. We intend to spread more awareness on this critical issue through such forums and we will conduct more such training programmes acros India with the support of the local state police forces."

The Indian Music Industry conducted over 150 training programmes last year, 30 at the state level and rest at district level. �We are hoping to double it as it is really having an effect. The training module is divided in three levels, first explaining the principles of piracy by IMI officers. Second level consists of domain training by identity pirated products and explaining how to use your police skills in the domain of anti-piracy and the third is creating awareness, promotion and publicity at the consumer level,... Lazarus noted.

IMI has also released an audio visual presentation featuring Indian Idol 3 winner Prashant Tamang who is also a sepoy with the Kolkata Police in association with Sony BMG.... Tamang speaking about piracy as a constable and his understanding of it as an artist proved to be really effective and it would be used in the training programmes for the police officers,... says the IMI.

IMI has conducted around 10,000 anti-piracy raids in five years, accounting to about 200-300 raids a year, the body has conducted about 3000 raids till now in this fiscal year.