Music piracy on the decline

2008-11-28 16:11

Duncan Alfreds

Cape Town - The piracy of intellectual property has declined, delegates at an indaba on the issue were told earlier this week.

The Intellectual Property Rights Indaba was held on Wednesay at the Hilton Hotel in Johannesburg and covered fundamental intellectual property rights issues focusing on software, health care and music.

The Free Market Foundation and International Policy Network co-hosted the event.

The indaba was held with a view to creating awareness on the issue.

Mandla Maseko, Managing Director of Black Eagle Sound and member of the Association of Independent Record Companies (Airco) said he hoped to get all stakeholders informed of the situation in the music industry.

"We want to consolidate efforts to create awareness among the public," he told News24.

Taking stock

"It's critical to do a stock taking of the industry. We need to ask ourselves, 'What are we doing? And are we doing it right?'" he said.

He said that while it might appeared that music piracy had been shown decline in recent times, there are significant "forces" that continue to spur piracy.

"Cost of music and a high illiteracy rate in South Africa play a big role in the decision to buy pirated goods. Low-income earners are the highest consumers of pirated materials," he said.

"Tsotsi was on the street before it was even released," he said, in reference to the South African Oscar winning movie.

He is positive about the state of the industry.

Naming and shaming

"We're happy that BSA [Business Software Alliance] has seen a steady decline in piracy, but that is the secondary matter."

"We need to publicise the number of arrests and raids related to piracy, and we have started naming and shaming of hotspots where piracy is particularly rife."

He said that the thrust of his presentation was the human issues around music piracy.

"In South Africa, people still buy CDs and can be deceived when they are offered the content without the packaging of the original."

"We need to educate our local artists about their intellectual rights. Our artists don't always have the ability to access compensation for the content that they produce," he adds.

"We should be doing more to raise issues related to piracy and how it impacts our artists."

- News24