Explained: Who were Tamilrockers, the piracy group that became a headache for the Tamil film industry?

Who were the Tamilrockers?

Tamilrockers was a piracy website that was run by a group that came to be known by the same name. The origins of the group are largely unknown, but if some reports are to be believed, they came into existence around 2011. This was a time when torrent sites like Pirate Bay were the go-to platforms to download pirated content for free.

Initially, the group was relatively unknown as they would upload only Tamil films on their website. Their popularity rose when they expanded to bootlegging pirated content from other regional languages.

The size of the group still remains a mystery. However, the extent of their operation indicated that they had a presence outside India.

How did cops tackle the menace?

In March 2008, Kerala Police arrested three persons allegedly connected to Tamilrockers on piracy charges. Karthi, allegedly the brain behind Tamilrockers, was arrested in Villupuram, Tamil Nadu, along with two of his aides, Prabhu and Suresh.

The police made these arrests acting upon several complaints from filmmakers saying their films were uploaded on illegal torrent sites within days of their release. The group allegedly leaked the Mohanlal hit film Pulimurugan online, and are also said to be behind the leak of Pranav Mohanlal’s debut film, Aadhi.

According to one media report, a police probe into bank transactions made by the accused revealed that they must have made more than Rs 1 crore through the illegitimate business.

What happened to Tamilrockers after that?

The site, if reports are to be believed, is now defunct. They are said to have ceased operations in 2020. A message from Tamil MV, another piracy website, read: “Thanks to TR for his wonderful services for a decade! — from team TMV [The site was shut don by themself’s nothing more then that]. (sic)”

However, clones of the site and copycats-sites do still exist. Latest films and web series are routinely leaked on the Internet only days after release.

How piracy impacts the entertainment industry?

The pandemic has accelerated the web traffic for illegal piracy sites. According to a 2021 joint report published by US-based CDN and cybersecurity firm, Akamai Technologies, and MUSO, a data company measuring global piracy, global demand for pirated content skyrocketed between January 2021 to September 2021.

India alone recorded 6.5 billion visits to piracy websites, the third-highest after the US (13.5 billion) and Russia (7.2 billion). The report titled “State of the Internet” also revealed that there were over 67 billion TV content piracy visits, which is roughly 50% of all pirate site traffic. The publishing category is in second place with 30 billion visits (23%), followed by films with 14.5 billion (11%) and music with 10.8 billion (8%). Software piracy ranks close with 9 billion visits (7%). Another report by London-based Digital TV Research pegged the loss of revenue for over-the-top media service providers in India to be $3.08 billion this year. The global cost of online streaming piracy will reach $52 billion this year, according to the report.

Torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay, however, claim that they do not make much money after spending on maintenance and server costs. The site’s spokesperson once even went to the extent of saying they are probably operating at a loss.