Statement by Eugene Mthethwa (Chairman of AIRCO Anti Piracy Sub-Committee) in support of the Ministry of Arts and Culture’s statement issued by Sandile Memela on the perceived Department’s “Quiet Diplomacy” to fight piracy in the music industry.

 

The Association of Independent Record Companies (AIRCO), through its Anti-Piracy Sub-Committee, chaired by Eugene Mthethwa, would like to support the Department of Arts & Culture (DAC) and express that we too are disturbed by the perception being created that the DAC is not interested nor actively engaged in the anti-piracy battle.

In fact, AIRCO in conjunction with the Ministry of Arts and Culture, have acknowledged the need to vigorously fight piracy and together are embarking on a number of initiatives around piracy amongst other issues such as  broadcast & digital rights, skills development and international relations. 

AIRCO acknowledges that there have been other structures and associations who have been working towards combating piracy for a number of years, such as RISA , MUSA (now fused into Creative Workers Union ), SAFACT , and Operation Dudula. These organisations have done the best they could and have made strides towards highlighting this issue as part of the national agenda. AIRCO is committed to working in partnership with these organisations and the DAC in order to create sustainable and effective anti-piracy measures.

To that end, AIRCO continues to be in active discussions with the DAC towards creating an integrated and holistic approach to anti-piracy that will avoid the disappointing outcomes such as those in the recently failed case against alleged music pirate Zhouren Chen.

In this specific instance, charges against Zhouren Chen had to be dropped due to technicalities, as there were provisions of both the Criminal Procedures Act and Copyright act that were not adhered to during the search and arrest process. Specifically, the crime scene and evidence were contaminated by the presence of non-SAPS individuals on the scene. Therefore the evidence could not be used, leading to the unfortunate dropping of the charges.
 
This incident highlights the lack of understanding of the various and often overlapping laws dealing with anti-piracy, even amongst those at the frontline of this battle. AIRCO strongly advocates for the education and training of all of those involved in anti-piracy efforts, from the SAPS to the music industry bodies tasked with this battle.

To this end, AIRCO has drafted a substantial and holistic anti-piracy policy document that, in principle, has been adopted by the DAC. This “all-inclusive” strategy dubbed IMMU (Integrated Multifaceted Mechanism Unit) is proposed by AIRCO as a comprehensive solution to the existing loopholes and gaps in the relevant laws. This strategy works to include all stakeholders in the fight against piracy and specifically looks to integrate communication between relevant government departments such as DAC, DTI, and SAPS, as well as relevant industry stakeholders.

The strategy document contains specific recommendations including a “Banderole” system based on copy-protected holograms to be included on all legitimate product, the blank tape levy on all blank media as a way to fund various initiatives, and workshops and outreach to the industry and to relevant stakeholders.

AIRCO has already started its national Roadshow of workshops to this end, and will be extending these workshops to Mpumalanga and Limpopo in June. These workshops are open to all independent artists and record companies.

AIRCO is also in active discussions with various industry stakeholders and the DAC to create a working group to look at the feasibility of many of its recommendations. These concrete steps, when taken forward together by industry stakeholders and government in partnership, will effectively work to combat piracy.

AIRCO is committed to its partnership with the DAC and acknowledges the support and commitment of the DAC towards moving towards effective anti-piracy measures.

AIRCO is recognised as the legitimate independents’ industry body by the DAC (Department of Arts and Culture), RISA (The Recording Industry of South Africa), SAMRO (South African Musicians Rights Organisation), SARRAL (South African Recording Rights Association, NORM (National Organisation of Reproduction Rights in Music in Southern Africa) and MOSHITO .

For more information contact Red Flag:

Lara Preston
(011) 447 8283
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