This is how Star & Disney are aiming to combat online piracy

In the recent past the movie ‘Udta Punjab’ made it to headlines not just because of the censorship controversy, but also the rampant violation of the copyright policy of as it was distributed via internet before its actual release. The movie was apparently uploaded on seven sites before its release. Similar was the case with Nawazuddin Siddiqui's Manjhi-The Mountain Man that sccumbed to online leak that ended up in low response at the box office. This brings us to the major issue which has been on a rise that is ‘Online piracy’. Almost all of us are guilty of downloading a latest movie or any latest episode of TV series from torrent or other similar websites thus contributing to the rampant issue of piracy. According to report by Ernst and Young 2008, Indian film industry lost USD 959 (Rs. 4,411 Crores) million and 5, 71,896 jobs in that year due to piracy. The report estimates the piracy rate in India at 60 per cent. Addressing this concern, 30 content creators and on-demand entertainment companies from around the world including Star India, Fox and Sky have joined forces to launch the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE). ACE is a new global coalition that intends to protect the dynamic legal market for creative content and reducing online piracy. The worldwide members of ACE include Star India, Twentieth Century Fox, Sky, Amazon, BBC Worldwide, CBS, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Disney and Warner Bros. Given the film and television companies investing heavily in digital distribution models, the legal marketplace for creative content has grown exponentially in recent years. There are close to 480 online services worldwide available for consumers to watch films and television programmes legally on demand. No doubts, that this growth of creativity has boosted the economy. In the United States alone, the creative sector adds over $1.2 trillion to the economy and supports more than 5.5 million direct jobs each year. However, the more the creative content moves online, the more is piracy posing a threat to creators, consumers and the economy. within days of release (hours in many cases), films and television shows can be spotted on pirate sites. The pirated versions of Baahubali 2 were leaked online on the same day of its release on April 28. The Tamil Film Producers’ Council said that the producers of Baahubali 2 have incurred a ‘humongous’ loss because due to the piracy. Last year, there were 5.4 billion downloads of pirated wide release films and prime-time television and VOD shows using peer-to-peer protocols worldwide. There were also an estimated 21.4 billion total visits to streaming piracy sites worldwide across both desktops and mobile devices in 2016. Piracy also puts consumers at risk by exposing them to malware threats. One in three pirate sites target consumers with malware leading to an array of issues including identity theft and financial loss, according to a December 2015 report by Digital Citizens Alliance. What will ACE do? By bringing together global creative companies producing all forms of content, ACE will expand cooperative efforts to reduce the prevalence of online piracy. ACE will draw upon the global antipiracy resources of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) in concert with the internal antipiracy expertise of the ACE coalition members. Specifically, it will conduct research, work closely with law enforcement to curtail illegal pirate enterprises, file civil litigation, forge cooperative relationships with existing national content protection organisations and pursue voluntary agreements with responsible parties across the internet ecosystem.