Copyright Violations

Copying happens all the time in the creative industry, be it in flicking the music tunes or the movie concept (and mentioning it as an inspiration or not even mentioning it if not for the critics to figure out) or in the technology or fashion or manufacturing if not in mining and oil exploration industries. :) I was wondering if it happens only in India or all over the world. Putting my little knowledge in a more quantitatively in this post.

Yes, movies and music has highest copying in India, ‘remake’ of good Hollywood movies by Bollywood and in turn by some regional Indian film industry. Most of the Music composers are copycats, with exceptions of the genius AR Rahman and few others. Pritam beats the copycat-king Anu Malik in recent times, with tunes of his hit numbers like Ya Ali, Kya Mujhe Pyaar Hai and many other tracks being copied shamelessly, and not even mentioning about it. Maine Pyaar kiya had some of the best songs of last decade, with most of its tracks had been ‘inspired’ from other good music of 80s. You could have a look here for more on copying in Indian music industry.

Copying of the manufacturing and consumer electronic goods happens no where better than China. They come up with almost all kinds of consumer electronics, and manufacturing goods as a fake of the exorbitantly overpriced original goods of American or European branded companies. Of course manufacturing of the original goods also happen in China, thanks to their cheap labor, giving them better knowledge to make the fake. The design of cars comes at no cost for many Chinese car manufacturers as they would have the exact same design of a Toyota or Ford or even a Maruti. There would be plethora of watches of Tag Heuer and Rolex selling on the Chinese streets, and in grey markets of India and other places in south-east Asia.

Wonderful thing about this is they also export these goods around south-east Asia, where there is a huge market for these fake stuff. The fake apparel manufacturing seems to be a big industry in Thailand, and China. The fakes of Nike, Adidas, Umbro, and others are mostly imported in India from these places. Anyone who has paid a visit to National market area in Bangalore would get these fakes of international brand watches, shoes and apparels at much much cheaper price than the originals.

Copy of software technologies, UIs among other things too happen, and this is more prevalent in other parts of the world than India. The legal hassles of these are evident in numerous cases. Huawei and Cisco feud is widely known, and the concept of Windows was originally from Xerox, isn’t it?

Books, i don’t need to mention. Be it plagiarism, or making e-books or pirated copies and selling it on streets, easiest of the things to copy.

Finally, we have a whole world of people who are looking to get the best idea or technology or any form of material for no price (or very low price), if not conceived by themselves they’d rather get it by snooping somewhere else. The protection of IPs is well defined in the technology space, but the fashion, book, and music industry do not get their dues.