'Monster' is a pirate's dream
2004-03-01 22:56
Cape Town - The demand for pirate copies of the movie, Monster, for which Charlize Theron received the Oscar as best actress on Sunday night, increased dramatically shortly after the ceremony.
Reinhardt Buys, internet legal expert of Buys Inc. attorneys, said copies of the movie was available on the Kazaa file-sharing system on the internet shortly after the Oscar ceremony.
The file is about 437 megabytes in size and takes between five and 20 hours to download.
Buys said it seemed as if pirate copies of Monster started only recently, since there are only a few electronic copies of the movie available on the internet.
"The Oscars are big news right across the world. All three parts of The Lord of the Rings were available on the internet before they were even released (on circuit)," he said.
Buys said South African author, JM Coetzee's works were just as popular on the internet after he won the Nobel Prize for literature last year.
Unlawful access to information
However, Buys warned that, under South African law, merely watching a pirate copy of the movie is seen as cyber hacking.
"Cyber hacking is defined as unlawful access to information. We tend to think of cyber hacking as guys with thick glasses who hack into computers."
Buys said a conviction for cyber hacking carried a two- to five-year prison sentence.
A judge in San Fransico, United States, recently declared the creation and distribution of software to copy films from DVDs as illegal.
Buys said South African legislation banned the creation and distribution of software that could bypass or compromise any security system.
Although there has not been a South African court case where such software came under investigation, a local judge would most probably declare such software illegal in this country.