Indian Music Industry gets tough on mobile piracy

Authorities in India are stepping up the fight against music piracy in a bid to reduce the number of songs illegally downloaded onto cell phones. With 200 million cell phone subscribers in India, the market for illegal music downloads is vast.

Music is copied from a computer or USB drive to a mobile device. For the first time, the Indian Music Industry (IMI) is trying to eradicate the trend to eliminate the huge losses the industry has been suffering recently.

With most modern phones doubling as music players, the potential for downloading tracks with filesharing services like Ares or Limewire is vast. IMI is a consortium of companies, including record labels such as Universal and BMG.

IMI has been carrying out a number of police raids across India to try and tackle the problem and stop phone dealers from supplying devices with music, but whether or not this initiative will have a lasting impact remains to be seen.

The next move will be for more companies to step up and offer legal, paid music downloads to cell phones.

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