Piracy

A few days back, DMW reported that the U.S.A is claiming victory over China in a World Trade Organization dispute over the country's protection of intellectual property, and the unauthorized sale of copyrighted and counterfeit goods in the country. Specifically, the WTO found that China is not living up to trade agreements by requiring that foreign movies and music be approved by state censors before they are eligible for copyright protection. It also took China to task for allowing counterfeit goods seized by authorities to be resold after simply removing the fake trademarks.



In South Africa, movie piracy is often seen as something that only affects Hollywood; bootlegged copies of the latest Spiderman don't really drive a lot of people to distraction (well, they might do, depending on how bad the copy is, I suppose)

At this point in time though, it's home-grown piracy that will kill our local filmmaking industry stoney cold dead; by selling well-known Hollywood films at low, low prices and by copying and selling on local films and thereby denying revenue to self-finded producers, a growing Durban film sector is extremely vulnerable to copyright infringment and piracy.

Taking the Nigerian experience again as an example; allegedly if a Nigerian film can't make it's money back in about three weeks, it won't get made. After that point, the bulk of the profit is siphoned off to pirates. How many Durban flmmakers can afford to work in that economic environment?