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Court
action spins off CD traders boycott CDTA president Sheron Samaranayake claimed that as a result of the action taken by M-Entertainments, all members of the association had unanimously agreed not to be involved in the sale of any products falling under the M-Entertainments label. Another concern raised by Mr. Samaranayake was the inability of the general public to afford buying original software for everyday personal or official use. An average original software system could cost anything between Rs. 10,000 and 300,000. So this is not just a problem for the traders and their families but it affects the growth of the country as a whole, he said. For example, he referred to 'Gamata Thakshana' a Government initiative to give those in rural areas a basic knowledge in computers. He said it would be impossible for them to afford original software from now on. He said an average person cannot afford an original CD priced at Rs. 800 or more on his income. It is impractical to adhere to copyright laws in our country as the economic situation is such that the majority cannot afford to pay such high prices. Most international recording companies aren't even aware of our existence due to the inconsequential impact we have on their market, he said. He also said shop owners were quite ignorant of the law and its workings and had not been previously informed that any local distributor held the rights to particular labels. Mr. Samaranayake said the CDTA strongly opposed pornography and the copying of work of local artistes. He said of the 14 cases, 12 were members of the association while the other two offenders had been copying the work of local artistes as well. Before the raids took place, the CDTA had big plans to penetrate the local music and film industry, obtain the copyright to various tele-dramas, movies and songs, and produce them for a lower cost, without compromising on quality, he said. If all the members invest even Rs. 100,000 each, we should have adequate funds to start this project, said Mr. Samaranayake. They would be able to sell these originals for much less than they cost now, as their main aim wouldn't be to make profits but to make enough to cover costs. However, he said that soon after the raid, most shops had made a huge loss as some had closed for about a week, not knowing what was happening. Shop owners confirmed Mr. Samaranayake's grievance of never having received any sort of official notification from either the Government or a corporate establishment stipulating exclusive right to certain products. "I run a legitimate business and trade in the open. I've been paying taxes to the Government ever since I started my business, nine years ago. It's not like I am running a drug business or a brothel," a shop owner said. Another shop owner complained he lost a lot in terms of reputation and clientele. "What was worse was that I had to lay off some of my staff as I couldn't afford to keep them" he said. One shop owner said he had incurred about a Rs. 100,000 loss and lost 235 CDs as a result of the raid. "Some CDs that weren't even on the list were seized. They just came out of the blue, without any prior warning, strode into my shop and took whatever they wanted" he said. There are around 500,000 dependents of the industry, in the form of traders, staff and their families. Pirated
CD sellers fined The plaintiff M/s Maharaja Entertainments (Pvt) Ltd., accused the organisations of violating the copyrights of its principals, Sony Music, Columbia, Records, Epic Pecords, Universal Music, Polygram, Poldore, Mercury, Vergin, Capitol, EMI, Sarigam, RPG, Warner Bros and Miramax. The court had issued search warrants and the commercial crimes division of the CID had raided "Ape CD Kade" situated at Borella, "Digi Media" Colombo and "Pro Media" Colombo and seized the counterfeit CDs, VCDs and DVDs including the computer used for the manufacture of the copies. The organisations pleaded guilty to the charges and gave a further undertaking to court that they will not violate the copyrights of the owners in the future. It was also agreed that in the event they act in a manner, which violates the rights of the copyrights owners, the complainant is free to reopen the case and prosecute them for contempt of court. Each of the accused paid a sum of Rs. 2,500,00 as prosecution costs in addition to the crown costs imposed by the court. Attorneys-at-law Kalinga Indatissa with Indika Karunajeeva, Asanga Bodaragama, Upamalika Liyanage instructed by G.G. Arulpragasam appeared for M. Entertainments while Muditha Abeyratna, attorney-at-law appeared for the accused. |
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