There is no empirical evidence to show that regulating the internet has decreased piracy, said G R Raghavender, Registrar of Copyrights of the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD).
Raghavender was speaking on the sidelines of a two-day workshop on ‘Copyright Issues in Recording and Film Picture Industry’ organised by National Law School of India University (NLSIU) on Tuesday. He said regulating web is not the answer to piracy.
He said that internet regulations in countries like France, UK, Singapore and Hong Kong have attracted criticism, and blocking internet in line with what some countries follow is against the Constitutional mandate of providing access.
For instance, he said, France has a three-step Graduated Response Legislation. Under this, a user who uploads copyrighted content twice despite warnings will have internet connection shut off. He said India cannot resort to such extreme access as it is a fundamental right.
“Many foreign delegations have tried to pressurise me to influence my superiors to adopt full internet regulation. I asked them for empirical evidence. Without evidence of decrease in piracy, how and why should you regulate the internet?” he said.