"DVD Rockers" emerged as a piracy collective. Initially, the operation was crude: a person would buy an original DVD of a newly released Kannada movie (say, a Puneeth Rajkumar starrer), rip the data using computer software, compress it into a 700MB file, and then upload it to cyberlockers or burn it onto cheap disks sold on street corners.
This led to a collapse of the "satellite value" of smaller films. Television channels refused to pay high prices for movies that had already been circulated for free across WhatsApp groups and Telegram channels linked to the DVD Rockers network. One of the most frustrating aspects of "Kannada DVD Rockers" for authorities was its resilience. The Karnataka High Court and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) would order Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block the website.
In a landmark operation in late 2023, Cybercrime police cells in Bengaluru, in coordination with Interpol, tracked the financial flow (cryptocurrency payments and ad revenue) back to the administrators of several "Rockers" sites.
