India - Cases against four websites for piracy

[Len]

Cases were registered based on a complaint filed by association of exhibitors

The Intellectual Property Right Enforcement Cell (IPREC) on Saturday registered cases against four websites for piracy and circulation of pirated versions of movies online. Officials with the IPREC said that the cases were registered as a first step to legally block the erring websites.

The four FIRs have been registered against websites tnmachi.com, tnhdmovies.me, moviesda.in, and tamilrockerss.co.

While tnmachi.com had links to download pirated version of newly released Mersal, tnhdmovies.me had links to download Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru. The website tamilrockerss.co. had link to download Karuppan among others.

The cases were registered based on a complaint filed by the association of exhibitors in Coimbatore, Erode, Tirupur and the Nilgiris districts.

N. Thangavel, manager of the exhibitors association, said that the complaint was filed after pirated versions of newly released movies were found by some of the association members in the four websites.

“Theeran Adhigaram Ondru was released in some of the theatres on Friday. But the pirated version of the film was available on tnhdmovies.me. Theatre owners approached the association to take up the matter as number of viewers drastically declined even for new releases. Some of them are at the verge of closing theatres due to piracy,” said Mr. Thangavel.

D. Jeyakumar, Inspector of IPREC, said that the cell had instructions from ADGP (Crime) Amaresh Pujari to take stringent action to prevent piracy.

“The details of the case registered against the websites will be forwarded to the Superintendent of Police (IPREC) and further to the nodal officer of the Government to initiate legal action. The FIRs will help us to block the websites through legal channels,” said Mr. Jeyakumar.