IT could soon be curtains for India's fly-by-night video and cable kingpins. The entertainment goldmine that they have exploited without authorisation—and, therefore, without shelling out a penny—for years now, is poised to extract its revenge at long last. Hollywood's no-nonsense anti-piracy drive, which began in right earnest with a raid on a New Delhi home video library in November 1994, has now assumed the proportions of "a well-organised, well-funded, stringent campaign to ensure copyright protection".
Those strong words are Lowell B. Strong's. And the warning is as official as it can be. For, besides being the vice-president of the Motion Picture Association (MPA), the body which represents eight Hollywood majors globally, he is the director of its anti-piracy operations in the Asia-Pacific region. "We are exploring the possibility of forming a federation along with film producers and distributors in India to eliminate video and cable piracy," says the Singapore-based Strong, who was in India last week for...
