Africa-Press – Malawi. Copyright Society of Malawi (COSOMA) has joined forces with Multichoice in fight against use of South African decoders in Malawi, saying the behaviour has plagued the local economy and creative industry as it enables people in Malawi to consume South African content outside of its jurisdiction.
Multichoice said in a joint statement with COSOMA that the main form of piracy being experienced in Malawi is Cross-Border Piracy whereby decoders are bought under false pretences in one country and then shipped to neighbouring countries, sold and illegally connected.
Consumers usually subscribe to the South African accounts of Multichoice because the subscription fees are low when compared to the fees charged in Malawi.
But COSOMA noted that this kind of behaviour has plagued Malawi’s local economy and creative industry with hundreds of entities cropping up in Malawi, working hand-in-hand with illegal entities in South Africa, enabling locals to consume South African content outside of its jurisdiction.
Dora Makwinja, Executive Director of the Copyright Society of Malawi, said that while the battle against piracy in the areas of software, film and music has played out sensationally in the popular media and different circles, piracy of broadcasters’ signals has received scant attention.
She noted that lack of awareness about the issue of signal piracy in Malawi is attributable to mainly the absence of empirical assessment of both the scale of signal piracy in the country and the associated financial losses incurred by the broadcasting industry.
She, however, added that evidence suggests that broadcast piracy affects small and large broadcasters alike wherever they operate. “In fact, broadcasters in developing and least developed countries suffer the greatest harm from signal piracy because they often do not benefit from the economies of scale enjoyed by their counterparts in more mature economies.
“Signal piracy makes it significantly more difficult for broadcasters such as MultiChoice to sell their content in foreign markets, especially when viewers in those markets already have access to the content through illegal means. Much as we (COSOMA) have focused our attention on fighting piracy of physical products, it is high time that we moved to fighting piracy of the illegal access to content. We are therefore pleased to join forces with MultiChoice Malawi in this initiative.” Ms. Makwinja added.
According to Multichoice, local consumers of South African content via illegal decoders or fraudulently acquired subscriptions fail to realise that the content being consumed is produced, licensed and commissioned for a specific audience.
The company expressed concern that illegal consumption of the content elsewhere, negatively impacts the content owners lives and livelihoods and furthermore, infringes on intellectual property rights and laws which govern where content is meant to be consumed and under what circumstances.
“As we engage key industry stakeholders that are collectively determined to clamp down on content piracy, we are proud to lend our voice to amplify and create awareness against content theft,” said MultiChoice Malawi Managing Director, Gus Banda. “Contrary to the belief that piracy is a harmless crime, it in fact has a serious negative effect on our economy. It harms investor confidence and tax revenue, and can also affect trade opportunities, if we are not seen as a country where intellectual property is respected and protected”, Mr. Banda added.
Digital video piracy costs the entertainment industry up to $71 billion every year, according to the US Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center – harming businesses, destroying lives and livelihoods and stifling economic growth.
This huge industry loss – more than the annual gross domestic product of Mozambique, Uganda and Guinea combined – represents the impact on the US entertainment sector alone. The economic impact on the rest of the world is similarly catastrophic.
Meanwhile, MultiChoice Malawi, has thrown its weight behind Partners Against Piracy (PAP), a Pan-African campaign to fight content piracy. PAP works to protect the livelihoods of the thousands of creatives and broadcast professionals and support the local economy, especially at this time when creative content piracy is rising – particularly since the onset of Covid-19 lockdowns, which forced many people to stay home, resulting in a surge in demand for TV and film entertainment.
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