Has anyone been arrested for downloading torrents in India?

Replies

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  Abhishek Havanur

  Kaustubh Katdare

  Downloading torrents is officially illegal in India and I'm wondering if you know anyone's been arrested for downloading torrents. What I'm trying to know is whether the government has already became serious about implementing the law?
  
  On a related note; what are the ways you can actually pay to watch content of your choice? For example, I wish to see the movie Bridge of Spies (2015) and I'm willing to pay a fee to watch it.
  
  Bridge of Spies (2015) - IMDb
  
  What are my options?

  Probably in India no one is arrested yet sir...And even i still download Movies ,Softwares in Torrents.
  
  you can get "Bridge of Spies (2015) - IMDb" movie in pirate bay, isohaunt you need not to pay while u can download it for free.
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  Jash Mota

  As of now, no one. Rather, the Supreme Court took a U-turn saying that watching and downloading pirated films online isn't a crime! Intriguing isn't it?
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  Roney Joe

  Don't think they will catch anyone for this, they have tones of other works to do rather than catch people for downloading torrents, but to be on safer side i would suggest you to use a proxy software to mask your IP and use a mac masking software aswell so that it becomes tough to track.
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  Ankita Katdare

  When the news first appeared in August, I know quite a few people who stopped downloading torrents right away. But since there was no strict action taken, meaning no news of people being arrested for downloading movies, tv shows via torrents, people decided to go back to their original measures. It just makes me wonder if there is really any way to bottle this problem. The content producers who want to sell their stuff must definitely suffer losses due to the masses illegally downloading the content (especially related to entertainment).
  
  Some of my friends have argued that they want to watch American TV shows that neither telecast anywhere on Indian TV channels, nor available on any of the streaming websites such as Netflix, Hotstar etc. They are ready to pay for this content (they say), but they want to watch the show as it is released (immediately) i.e. before the spoilers and reviews start crowding the internet.
  
  In the foreseeable future, I think the only way to 'reduce' the consumption of illegal torrents (not completely curb), content producers will have to resort to media streaming websites and release their movies and TV shows simultaneously worldwide so that they don't lose out on their key audience and also get paid for their work.
  
  As #-Link-Snipped-# asked above, to watch a movie that has been released (as early as last year), one should not be made to wait till the DVD/BluRay disk is released. It should be released on paid content streaming websites immediately, so that the audience can enjoy the content from wherever they want and whenever they want.
• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  Jash Mota

  Rather, the Supreme Court took a U-turn saying that watching and downloading pirated films online isn't a crime! Intriguing isn't it?

  Are you sure about this? Was this in the news? It's interesting!
• 

  Jash Mota

  Kaustubh Katdare

  Are you sure about this? Was this in the news? It's interesting!

  Here are two links from TOI referring the same:
  Viewing pirated films online not an offence: Bombay HC | Mumbai News - Times of India
  
  Illegal downloaders, you might not be criminals in India, but be careful abroad | Delhi News - Times of India
• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  Thanks! But the question remains - are there any options available where I can actually pay a small fee and watch any movie of my choice, legally? Google Play, Amazon Video and even Netflix have their own collection; but they do not have the movies or shows that I want to watch.
• 

  Jash Mota

  That's really disappointing situation. Recently, Prime announced Robot will be available along with their exclusives. No idea for the rest. Few years back, you could buy a series on Xbox Video and watch on any device, but later it was unsupported in India. I mean c'mon! We're not savages!
• 

  Abhishek Rawal

  Kaustubh Katdare

  Downloading torrents is officially illegal in India and I'm wondering if you know anyone's been arrested for downloading torrents.

  Downloading torrents is not illegal in any place on Earth. Torrents are not just used to share pirated contents.
  
  [QUOTE="Kaustubh Katdare, post: 377568, member: 1What I'm trying to know is whether the government has already became serious about implementing the law?[/QUOTE]
  As per Indian Govt law, if you bypass and download from the torrent website that is being blocked by TRAI, you're committing a crime.
  
  However, there are dozens of website, that has not being blocked by TRAI. So, Downloading from it is not a crime.
  
  Also, As per the new law, It's okay to stream and watch movies/shows that you haven't paid for. You just have to make sure, you're not making duplicate content (downloading).
  
  I have downloaded almost 75+ movies after this new law. Indian government don't really care about this and shouldn't either. We have better things to do.
• 

  Pritesh Veer

  Use a VPN if you are that much worried. It will change your location to other countries.
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  Kaustubh Katdare

  Downloading from torrents is illegal in india. This is a typical notice that you'll see if you are visiting a blocked website -

  Viewing, downloading, exhibiting or duplicating an illicit copy of the contents under this URL is punishable as an offence under the laws of India, including but not limited to under Sections 63, 63-A, 65 and 65-A of the Copyright Act, 1957 which prescribe imprisonment for 3 years and also fine of upto Rs. 3,00,000/-. 

• 

  Anoop Kumar

  Section 65. Possession of plates for purpose of making infringing copies.— Any person who knowingly makes, or has in his possession, any plate for the purpose of making infringing copies of any work in which copyright subsists shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to 4 [two years and shall also be liable to fine.]

  The given message is wrong and abolished by court.

  
   He directed all ISPs to drop the line "'viewing, downloading, exhibiting or duplicating' a particular film is a penal offence" from the 'error message' and directed them to display a more generic message on URLS to be blocked for infringement of copyright.

  Those URL are blocked because, those domains are violating the aforementioned law. 

  To put in one line:  "If a person download a pirated content to distribute. It's an offence". 

  PS: However you are allowed pirate "the pirates of Caribbean", you are "Thugs of Hindostan" ?

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  Peter Wright

  Has anyone arrested in India for downloading from torrent? No. But that doesn't mean it will not happen in future. Many people still use torrent in India. I too use torrent to download movies and games. But to be on safe side everyone should use VPN or Proxy just in case.

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  Rashmi Gandhi

  LOL. All my friends believe that torrent download is legal in India. God forbid that the government of India starts to take a strict action.. Everyone will be in big trouble. I believe the new platforms like Amazon Prime and Netflix and Hotstar have made it quite cheap to access all movies. At least the popular ones.. so why not just pay and watch it legally? Agreed that the wait time sometimes is more like a month or two, but truth be told, there is so much watch-worthy content on these sites, that you can while your time waiting to watch the newest flick. Just my two cents, I guess.