K Sera Sera responds in Viacom18’s ‘Force 2’ piracy case

In reference to the recent news about a case against K Sera Sera Digital Cinema by Viacom18 for the movie ‘Force 2’, K Sera Sera has clarified that the company has not received any intimation from either Viacom18 or from the Cyber Cell Department of the Mumbai Police about the said case. 

Last week, the Cyber Crime Investigation Cell, BKC, Mumbai had registered an FIR against K Sera Sera Digital Cinema upon a complaint filed by Viacom18 Media in relation to online piracy of its film ‘Force 2’. 

The film was released on November 18, 2016 and the pirated print of the film was found online on the same day. In its complaint, Viacom18 alleged that the film had been leaked online by K Sera Sera, thereby infringing Viacom18’s copyright in the film along with other offences committed by K Sera Sera under Information Technology Act, Copyright Act and Indian Penal Code. 

K Sera Sera was one of the firms hired by Viacom18 for digital integration of ‘Force 2’, wherein the Digital Content Package (DCP) was sent to K Sera Sera before the release of the film. 

Meanwhile, in its response, K Sera Sera stated that as part of its practice to fight and stop piracy, the company regularly conducts audits of various across cinema chains where its servers are installed to stem any attempt of piracy. 

“As a part of one such audit, in November 2016, we have identified one such attempt for piracy of the movie ‘Force 2’. On November 18, 2016, as a part of our audit process, we purchased pirated DVDs of ‘Force 2’ from the market. All the movies distributed by us contain an additional watermark which helps us in our audit process. We inspected these DVDs for our hard-coded watermark and found one of our watermarks on a DVD, linking to Prakash Cinema in Dabra, Madhya Pradesh. The piracy seemed to be on account of a camcorder in the cinema hall. Following this discovery, we immediately terminated the contract as well as access to the digital server for Prakash Cinema. We also withdrew the physical server from Prakash Cinema to check for any other attempts of infringement,” the K Sera Sera statement said. 

It added, “On December 7, 2016, a complaint was filed in Amboli Police Station, Mumbai against Prakash Cinema. On the same day (December 7, 2016) we intimated Viacom18 about the entire matter with Prakash Cinema via an email, which also included a copy of the police complaint. On December 8, 2016, a hard copy of the email to Viacom18 along with the police complaint was hand delivered to Viacom18. The receipt of the same has been acknowledged.”