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Amended Cinematograph Act 1952

Amended Cinematograph Act 1952

passed in Parliament

Main Examination: General Studies Paper 2

(Indian Polity: Amended Bill)

August 30, 2023

Context:

Recently, the Cinematograph Act 1952 has been amended in the Parliament with the aim of curbing film piracy in the field of film production. This new bill has been prepared by the government after consultation with film industry experts. The Bill proposes to add new sections to the Cinematograph Act with provisions to prohibit unauthorized recording of films (Section 6AA) and their exhibition (Section 6AB). Now the question is whether this amendment will be able to stop film piracy?

Cinematograph Act 1952 (Amended):

A provision has also been made in the bill to make piracy a punishable offence.
Cinematograph Act 1952 amended bill was passed by the Parliament.
This Act changes the method of censorship as well as prohibits film piracy.
This bill has been prepared after consultation with experts from the film industry.
The Bill proposes to add new sections to the Cinematograph Act with provisions to ban unauthorized recording of films (Section 6AA) and their exhibition (Section 6AB).
A provision has also been made in the bill to make piracy a punishable offence.
If found guilty, the punishment can be imprisonment up to three years or a fine up to Rs 10 lakh or both.
Some changes have also been suggested in the new bill to make film censorship easier.
After the new bill, the certificate of the Censor Board will be valid forever.
At present, any film is given a censor certificate for 10 years.
Now TV content will also have to be certified by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).
In this way, films and broadcasters can deliver their content to the audience without any legal problems.

Advantages of Amendment:

The revenue of the film industry will increase.
Employment will be created.
The main objectives of India's National Intellectual Property Rights Policy (India's National IP policy) will be fulfilled.
There will be relief in cases of piracy and copyright infringement of online content.

Punishment provision-

Piracy is illegal in India. Watching, downloading and distributing pirated movies is also punishable by jail and fine.
In case of violation of the Copyright Act, the mobile, laptop or system of the accused could be seized by the police without any warrant.
Under the Copyright Act 1957 Section 63, there was a provision of 3 years in jail and a fine of Rs 50,000 to Rs 3 lakh if caught committing piracy.
According to the new law, if anyone is caught committing film piracy, there will be a jail term of up to three years and a fine of five percent of the cost of the film.
That is, if the cost of a film is Rs 100 crore, then a fine of Rs 5 crore will be imposed if caught piracy of that film.

Piracy increased in India due to the following reasons-

Losses to the Film Industry due to Piracy-

India is the third largest market for piracy in the world
The Indian film industry is suffering a loss of approximately Rs 24,000 crore due to piracy.
Globally online piracy has caused a loss of 4.15 lakh crores ($ 52 billion) to the film industry.
Countries that will suffer the most losses from online piracy in 2022

Certificate in Three New Categories

Some new categories like ‘VA 7+’, ‘VA13+’ and ‘VA16+’ have been included in this bill.
Now films will be certified separately for audiences of 7 years, 13 years and 16 years under VA certification.
Children below this age limit can watch such movies with their parents.
Earlier films were divided into only three categories. The first ‘V’ means that everyone can see it. Second ‘VA’ means children can watch the movie with their parents.
The third is ‘A’, that is, only those people who are above 18 years of age can watch the film.
Earlier films were divided into only three categories
Earlier films were certified in three ways. The first was 'U' which is called universal. If a film gets a 'U' certificate, it means that people of any age group can watch it without any restrictions.
'UA' certified films come at second place. If a child is below 18 years, he can watch a 'UA' certified film under the guidance of a parent. 'A' certified films come at third place. Only those people who are above 18 years of age can watch these films.

Formation of committees by the Central Government to take action against piracy in the film industry.

Mudgal Committee

This committee was constituted on February 4, 2013 under the Cinematography Act, 1952 under the chairmanship of former Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal.
The Mudgal Committee in its report made its recommendations on issues such as obscenity and communal disharmony, depiction of women and advisory boards, guidelines, classification, piracy of films, jurisdiction of Appellate Tribunal and review of the provisions of the Cinematograph Act, 1952.

Shyam Benegal Committee

The committee, constituted on January 1, 2016, was headed by filmmaker Shyam Benegal.
As per the report of this committee, CBFC should function as a full-fledged certification body and should not impose changes on any film.
The first version of the Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in 2019 by the then Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, in which punitive action was proposed against piracy with imprisonment of up to three years or a fine of Rs 10 lakh or both.

Conclusion:

After getting approval from the President, if this becomes a law, then film piracy will be banned. This will reduce the loss of crores to the film industry.

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Mains Exam Question

Mention the benefits from the main provisions of the amended Cinematograph Act 1952.