FICCI For Digital Rights Management System

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is pushing for the adoption of an ’efficient’ digital rights management (DRM) system, saying that this would give ‘a fillip to the fast-growing Indian digital entertainment and media industry’.

FICCI and professional services firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers conducted a study on the Indian entertainment and media industry and released their report ‘Entertainment and Media: India Going Digital’ here to coincide with the start of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI).

The report called for an efficient DRM system ’that allows management and protection of digital content’. It added that it was the ’need of the hour’ for India to have ’technology-agnostic, forward-looking and robust regulatory policies balanced with self-regulation and cross-industry agreements’.

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FICCI officials said the study showed the rise of digital media threw up issues that ‘Indian stakeholders need to take cognisance of’.

Among these, copyright issues are the foremost which impact exploitation of digital content across new media. Technology issues, especially those relating to inter-operability of equipments and devices at consumer premises are also to be dealt with,’ said FICCI’s media coordinator Taresh Arora.

Digital piracy, though at a nascent stage, will also be a challenge for Indian stakeholders with the proliferation of digital media, Arora argued while stressing the need for a DRM system.

FICCI admitted that there would be a price to pay for the introduction of DRM systems.

‘Restrictions on usage, which include the inability of content downloaded on one device to play on another, can discourage some consumers from buying product through legitimate channels. Companies are grappling with this trade-off,’ the report said.

FICCI said that because of increasing pressure on the industry itself, music companies are considering releasing music over the Internet without copyright protection, which would fuel Internet distribution and revenue growth by allowing downloaded music to be played on virtually any device.

‘With physical distribution falling rapidly, labels are becoming more receptive to strategies that enhance digital distribution even as it reduces impediments to unauthorised distribution,’ the report said.

‘Companies are experimenting with different approaches to intellectual property management. It is expected that technologies, methodologies, and business models will continue to evolve during the next several years,’ it added.