Three years ago, if you were to tell someone that your passion is to collect DVDs/CDs, you would likely be thought of as filthy rich. Not any more. Nowadays, just because you’ve a library of, say, 300 DVDs at home, nobody is going to accuse you of affluence; even an ordinary middle-class family is likely to boast that many in their library --  largely thanks to the booming grey market for pirated DVDs in the City.
A pirated DVD costs Rs 80 in the grey market and you can pick up the fake barely a week after the theatre release of a new film. In the first week, you would get only a camera print, but two weeks later, the original itself would be all yours.
And the grey market knows no class; you’d find people of nearly all demographics queueing up for CDs and DVDs here. Says Sharma (name changed), who owns a DVD store on Commercial Street: “My clients include college students, businessmen, autorickshaw drivers and disc jockeys. Their age-groups are also as diverse --  from 12 to 60, they all make a beeline for my shop.”
Sunaina, a B Com student of Christ College, says she picks up all her DVDs from the grey market. “When I get them for Rs 80, why would I pay Rs 600 at Music World or Planet M?” she asks. For Rahul, a Std 8 student of Vidyaniketan, the grey market is a godsend. After all, he can take home PlayStation discs (and DVD games) for just Rs 100. The price of the same in the regular market: Rs 2,450!
Says Ashok Shetty, a businessman from Indiranagar, “Just four years back, I used to feel quite cheap being seen ‘shopping’ in the grey market. But now, it doesn’t matter at all. In fact, I would kick myself if I had to pay 20 times the amount for the DVDs at those swanky retail outlets”. He’d rather save than look ‘decent’.
The grey market, of course, is not all about DVDs and games. Says Mahesh, dealer in pirated DVDs, “We sell music videos and games too, which are quite a rage. I don’t have a single client who buys one DVD at a time. Each buys a minimum of 10 DVDs at one go.” After the death of movie icon Rajkumar, he has sold over 8,000 DVDs to date which include both his movies as well as his songs. Even NRIs purchase these discs.

English films, ‘fastest’
“However, the demand is not so high in case of other Kannada movies. First of all, there is the ban on converting a Kannada movie into a CD/DVD for three years and, next, it is not worth the risk,” he adds.
English movies are the fastest to hit the market, thanks largely to the producers not being in India to keep tabs. Some English movies reach us before their release in India. The Hindi market is the one with most demand as most prints come from the Gulf. The more successful a movie, the faster we get it -- we got Dhoom 2 within a month of release, Shahrukh’s Don within two weeks, and the camera print of Spiderman 3 the day after the release.
The video parlours, however, are the ones that make a real killing. They buy DVDs in bulk from SP Road at just Rs 60 a unit and rent them out for Rs 20-30 a day.
However, this sort of demand is not there for VCDs. In fact, pirated VCDs are out of the market, courtesy of the DVD rage. Moreover, a DVD player is available for Rs 1,500, a major factor in the deflating market for VCDs.

 What, why & how?
*Piracy is defined as the illegal copying of software combined with unauthorised duplication of genuine trademarks and documents.
*The main reason for piracy is the huge difference in price of the retail and pirated versions. With technological advances, copying the packaged software into a CD-ROM has been an easy and inexpensive proposition.
*Piracy occurs at various levels: inside labs where the prints are made, in transit to various locations, and inside cinema halls in connivance with the theatre staff. Piracy also occurs while films are distributed to the South East Asian market such as Malaysia and Singapore.

Availability in B’lore

*National Market, Burma Bazaar, Arihant Plaza, Commercial Street, SP Road, Brigade Road, SJ Park Road, Majestic Mahaveer Plaza, and many roadside stalls/vendors
Rates: English films - Rs 80, Hindi - Rs 80, Music - Rs 100, Tamil- Rs 80, MP3- Rs 50
Latest movies on offer: Spiderman-3, Tara Rum Pum, 300, Provoked, Delhi Heights, Kya Love Story Hai

Long on promises....
*In August 2005, then chief minister N Dharam Singh told the Assembly that movie pirates would be booked under the Karnataka Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Drug Offenders, Gamblers, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders Act, 1985, a.k.a. the Goonda Act.
*The S M Krishna government had declared that it would make Bangalore a “zero-piracy city.”
....and short on action
*Unlike in many other States, local police don’t have an anti-piracy unit
*The present government is dragging its feet on bringing piracy within the Goonda Act’s purview.
*Most policemen, senior officials included, not trained to detect the pirated stuff
*Over-burdened police rarely get time to gather intelligence on piracy
*Murder, theft, robbery and such top City police priorities

How to zero in on the fake
The biggest problem for the law-enforcement agencies as much as the customers is to tell an original DVD of a movie from its pirated version. However, there are certain ways in which one could separate the fake from the real thing. Some tell-tale pointers:
Original Pirated
White colour disc Blue colour disc
Correct sub-title Shabby sub-title
More on screen menu options Less options
Crystal-clear image & sound Hazy image & blurred sound at times
Lasts longer (over 100 viewings) More prone to getting corrupted
Glossy paper used on cover Colour photo copies on cover

Police story: Not able to Act!
The problem in cracking down on piracy is the absence of a foolproof law. A promise made three years ago to bring piracy under Goonda Act remains one — a promise. At present, police can only file cases under the rather ‘weak’ Copyright Act. DCP (Crime) Ravikanthe Gowda says once piracy is brought under Goonda Act, the problem can be tackled to a large extent. Those caught dealing with pirated material can be kept under preventive detention.
Section 63 of the Act states that, if found guilty, a person can be punished with imprisonment for a term not less than six months but extending to three years and with fine, “which shall not be less than Rs 50,000 but which may extend to Rs 2 lakh”.