House arrest for film pirate
2008-11-03 09:20
East London - In a landmark victory against film piracy, a man has been sentenced to three years house arrest and a suspended jail term after police seized 2 500 DVDs from his East London home.
"Most of the sentences that we get in the courts are suspended sentences so the deterrent effect isn't that great," said James Lennox, CEO of The Southern African Federation Against Copyright Theft (Safact).
"So we hope this is the beginning of a trend," he told News24.
Safact was formed by companies in the entertainment industry and works with police, Customs, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Justice Department in enforcing intellectual property rights.
Significant ruling
Martin Scheepers was first charged for offences under the Copyright Act after the East London SAPS Specialised Commercial Crime Unit raided his house in February 2008, seizing pirated copies of films.
He was sentenced on Thursday in the East London Magistrate's Court.
"He must serve the full three years house arrest and there's an additional three years in prison which has been suspended for five years," said Lennox.
While under house arrest Scheepers will also serve 16 hours community service every month, and is banned from using alcohol or drugs.
Lennox said the level of piracy in South Africa was "unacceptably high", with Gauteng the worse affected area, followed by Cape Town and Durban.
But he added that noticeable progress was being made in the fight against piracy, particularly in Gauteng.
Safact says film and game piracy in South Africa costs legitimate business some R400m each year.
South Africa is party to most international conventions protecting intellectual property and the Counterfeit Goods Act and Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Act prohibit dealing in counterfeit goods.