The ‘Kolaveri’ movie is finally hitting the theatres on Friday, 30 March, 2012. The famous song from the movie ‘3’ which went viral on the internet platforms since the time it leaked, ‘Kolaveri di’ had over 50 million hits till now already. Of course, the number of hits is increasing with each passing hours. Now that the movie is releasing, the movie director, Aishwarya Rajnikath Dhanush, has got a ‘John Doe’ order from the Madras High Court. While a lot of us might not have been aware of it, a ‘John Doe’ order will protect the movie ‘3’ from any sort of piracy.
The John Doe order is dubbed as Ashok Kumar order in India. The order will prevent any illegal download or offering to download the movie in any form. The order also puts a check on selling of VCDs or DVDs of the movie. Just a trivia for the readers, ‘John Doe’ is an American name or term to refer to an unknown person.
The John Doe order also binds the Internet Service Provider. Even the internet service providers have to block access to such sites that may defy the order, according to Mr Arun Mohan. Mr Mohan represented the petitioners. On a petition by the production company of the film ‘3’, the order was passed by Justice Ms K.B.K. Vasuki.
The order demands for quick action than reacting after the offenders have infringed on the rights of the intellectual property of the film producers and directors of ‘3’. This kind of an order is the first for a Tamil Film.
Mr Harish Ram, the Chief Executive Officer, of Copyrights Labs, said, ‘John Doe order is an additional weapon in the film industry's fight against piracy.’ Copyrights Labs is an online antipiracy service provider for the Tamil and Telugu film industry. The company has signed up with the producers of ‘3'.
However, the main weapon still is technology. The technology that monitors websites for illegal upload of content, identifies it, and takes action against them, is the major weapon. The John Doe order empowers the petitioner, in this case the makers of the film, to stop illegal display of copyright protected content immediately. The stars of the film ‘3', Dhanush, who has sung the Kolaveri', in the lead and is directed by Aishwarya Dhanush, his wife. The John Doe order must be making online pirates sing ‘Why this Kolaveri?'
Video message can stop piracy
Video message sending services also offer movies on demand for a negligible sum of money paid to the service providers. From a list of movies that the service providers have to offer, viewers can choose to pay for the ones that they want to see. The video message sending service providers have tie ups with the makers of the films, which rules out any chance of infringement. It is important to understand that piracy is like a cancer to the respective industries, and to check it should be the duty of all responsible citizens.
