Pirated goods cost SA as much as R178 billion a year. The loss represents about 10% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), and a large part of this includes signal and content piracy, which can effectively wipe out the related industries.
This was reported by the Ministry of State Security to Parliament, on 2 June, according to deputy communications minister Obed Bapela.
Speaking at the Department of Communications' (DOC's) signal piracy seminar this week, the deputy minister said thought needs to go into how this matter can be integrated within the broader African Union forums on ICT, so that it can be tackled in a joint effort continentally.
“Signal piracy is increasing at an alarming rate and it is becoming too sophisticated.”
Signal piracy is when a party steals the programme-carrying signals of free-to-air or pay-TV broadcasters for either the purposes of unauthorised access to transmissions, or re-transmission to the public or subscribers, according to Aynon Doyle, regulatory affairs manager at MultiChoice, DStv and M-Net parent company MIH Group.
He adds that in doing so, they also steal the intellectual property of the copyrighted works contained in those broadcast programme-carrying signals.
Archaic issue
The DOC said the aim of the seminar, held on 6 and 7 June, was to prepare for the 22nd session of the Special Committee on Copyrights and Related Rights, and to lobby and consolidate Africa's position regarding the treaty on the protection of broadcasting organisations.
An additional objective was to raise awareness on signal piracy, and share lessons and strategies to abolish signal piracy on a cross-boarder level.
Bapela said the matter is over a decade old at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
“Signal piracy has become a scourge, which - if not urgently contained - can wipe out our broadcasting and content industries.”
He added that this means although the draft treaty is primarily about the protection of broadcasting organisations, its long-term benefits transcend the broadcasting sector as it permeates citizens' socio-cultural and economic lives.
Unlocking potential
A recent study done for WIPO revealed copyright and related rights-based industries contribute, on average, 4% to both the GDP and employment, according to Bapela.
“Interestingly, these industries contribute 8% and 4% to overall imports and exports, respectively.
“Although the study was based on SA comparative to other countries, the picture may be the same or even worse in many of the African countries.”
He said the R178 billion per annum cost to SA is because pirated goods prevail in countries where rich content remains untapped.
“As developing and least developed countries, we need to leverage on this treaty as a foundation on which our content industries can be built, protected and nurtured. In this way, we can unlock the local content industries' potential to increase content diversity and create jobs.”
He added, in favour of the treaty, that the lack of a legal instrument to deal with signal piracy may annihilate SA's content industries, and in the process limit access to diversity of information.
All sorts
DOC director of broadcasting policy Mashilo Boloka said the categories of signal piracy include consumer and industrial.
Consumer signal piracy sees illegal connections and card sharing, swapping and cloning. Industrial signal piracy involves the selling of receivers by syndicates or big institutions with sophisticated technical know-how.
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) said factors driving signal piracy are technology, broadband, poor enforcement mechanisms (judiciary, police, regulators), legislation, low risk factors for the pirate, organised crime trends, and the availability of pirate devices and ease of use.
“As broadband becomes more available in Africa, it is predicted that there will be an increase in piracy by using capturing devices to stream broadcasts to pirate clients on the World Wide Web in the form of live Internet streaming, live IPTV, delayed Internet streaming or downloading and distributing of content on file sharing networks,” said Doyle.
The association added that the impact of signal piracy on the public is that there is no quality protection; pirate devices procured are rendered useless after counter-measures are implemented; legitimate consumers carry the costs indirectly; and there are no parental ratings on content so children might be exposed to violence and pornography.
The impact for government is a loss of revenue, high costs for enforcement and a loss of investment.
For the industry and broadcasters, the impact is in the increase of subscriber disconnects, loss of revenue, loss of investor confidence, loss of credibility with content distributors, and the huge costs of fighting pirates. In the case of free-to-air broadcasters, signal piracy can result in a loss of potential income from the sale of local programming to other African broadcasters.
NAB cites an example, where in 2001 a smart card swap was done in SA, at a cost of $8 million, where 584 000 cards were swapped.
It added that signal piracy needs to be curbed through public awareness campaigns, civil lawsuits, criminal prosecution, and ongoing technology upgrades, which might be very costly.
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