India's growing entertainment industry says it is losing money and jobs on account of piracy, but the government is unwilling to bow to industry demands to regulate the manufacturing of optical media.

A study, released Thursday at an entertainment industry conference, estimates that the Indian entertainment industry loses some 820,000 jobs and about US$4 billion each year to piracy. The study, titled 'The Effects of Counterfeiting and Piracy on India's Entertainment Industry' was prepared by Ernst & Young for the US-India Business Council (USIBC), a business advocacy organization.

The Indian entertainment industry has been demanding tighter controls on manufacturers of CDs and other optical media to help counter piracy in the country. A draft Optical Disc Law aims to address the need for regulating piracy at the manufacturing stage, by requiring manufacturers and replicators of optical media to be licensed and registered, and by making manufacturers engrave an identifying code on discs they make.

India's secretary in the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Asha Swarup told the conference on Tuesday that the government does not favor the recommendations of the draft optical disk policy, as the suggestions by industry would lead to the creation of a regime of inspectors that would go against the grain of the government's policy of liberalization.