MUMBAI: Convergence of a platform for long been looked upon as a boon. However the team associated with Aamir Khan’s Taare Zameen Par (TZP) and the Akshay Kumar starrer Welcome would have a different take on it as the films are now available on Google’s video sharing website Youtube for free viewing.
Both the films have been split into multiple parts (Welcome – 16 parts and TZP – 14 parts) to make uploading and viewing simpler. So far both the films have attained over 159,000 views and it is only obvious that the views would continue to increase till the content has been removed. The misuse of this platform is no new issue, as this is just of the many cases.
Tracking such activities is also a combustive task as Youtube.com allows flagging of illegal content but there is no good reason why people who would get to watch the film for free would flag these. With millions of videos posted the task only becomes more difficult. While once the content is removed another user would have already posted the same online. The pirate source at the same time also publicizes their website names on the print, thus promoting yet another hub for pirated content.
It is unimaginable what the revenue would have been had this not occurred. Such activities may be attributed to the high ticket prices and the convenience of the internet medium. Truly convergence has begun taking its toll.
