WAIT A MINUTE – HOLOGRAMS WILL REDUCE PIRACY!
by Mingeli Palata
I find Mailo Zulu’s statement asserting that hologram is a big flop premature, narrow and unfounded. His statement was retrogressive and raise a lot of question about his motive i.e. piracy has killed the music and film industry and every well meaning artist should support the first ever mechanism devised by our government to fight piracy –logic!
Let us put this argument in context;
What is piracy?
Piracy simply is the illegal duplication of products without express permission from the author/artist/manufacturer/owner. Piracy is theft.
In the case of CDs/DVDs, how does piracy kill the local music and film industry?
Pirates have no regard for quality or the moral conscience to consult, buy publishing rights or engage to benefit the artist/producer. They produce a poor product (CD/DVD) without regard for quality hence their costs are low, and in turn vend their ‘fake’ products at a price cheaper than the price of the original product. On the market, the cheap pirated CDs/DVD make it impossible for the artists, whose costs of production are high and will sell at a higher price.
When the markets are flooded with cheap products, the shelf life of an original becomes longer thus crippling the local industry.
For instance, for films produced on DVDs, locally to produce movies on DVDs, the local artist or producer will spend about K10.00 per DVD and will maybe sell at K15.00 or K20.00 given the harsh economic situation affecting our people, whereas the pirate will have his stuff produced cheaply (Making production short cuts in disregard for quality) and will start to sell the same product at even half the price, making it impossible for the owners of the product to sell!
Because of this frustrating situation where people can illegally reproduce a product with no law to countercheck, proceeds of music or movies on DVD/CD to artist have been deemed impossible.
How does the Hologram work to reduce piracy of CDs/DVDs?
The hologram is a unique ‘stamp’ issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Copyright unit on all legal products (CD/DVDs) registered by the owners of the publishing rights. With this law, all products without the hologram are deemed as fake, pirated, illegal. This ‘stamp’ make it possible for law enforcers to monitor and raid all products that do not have the hologram, the small fee of K1.00 per Holgogram/CD/DVD levied ensures that the police, MoIB and ZRA have the financial muscle to monitor piracy and conduct raids, the law stops the importation of products without the hologram at all borders and entry points and it helps the consumers to differentiate or distinguish an original product from a fake one.
In an environment (as will be the case in the next few weeks) where the hologram is in full effect and the country has been rid of all pirated CDs/DVDs, the producers and publishers will have the power to set their own price, make money from sell of their art on DVD or CD and have enough money buy equipment and set up facilities to set up studios to improve their product.
The success of the Hologram means the resuscitation or in fact the birth of the music and film industries!
It means that artists will not be reduced to burgers doing shows at night clubs for K500.00 ($100), It means that their works will have value and value invariably comes with quality.
What does the Hologram project mean for the country?
The government is not getting much from the big informal sector of DVD or CDs sales because it is currently a black market with ghost and untraceable players. Hologram means regulation and formalization of the media (Music and Films) publishing business in Zambia.
Fill in the blanks…
Is the Hologram the one and only answer to piracy?
NO!
The hologram is the answer to ‘physical piracy’ in this context pirated DVDs and CDs but not cyber piracy. Cyber piracy is slightly more complicated than DVDs and CDs because music and movies can be easily shared through flash drives or Internet downloads. But and a BIG BUT the hologram empowers the Intellectual Property Unit of the Zambia Police with funds to devise mechanism to curb cyber crime and so lets take one step at time, after all a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush!
Conclusion
In this complex age, there is no one answer to piracy; it takes concerted efforts and a multi-faceted approach to the problem i.e. attitude change by the consumers, hologram, consisted raids on pirated products, tight border controls to reduce smuggling, innovative measures to reduce on internet downloads of non royalty free products and so on and so on…. Perhaps Mr. Maiko Zulu can add to the list!
In essence, with or without a hologram one can still play the music or watch the movie. People will still compile MP3 connections etc. I wonder how a hologram can be put on a USB or memory card….
Let govt find other measures i.e increase taxes on imported Blank recordable dics and Dvds etc so that pirated music is more costly than the original releases
THE WRITER OF THIS ARTICLE HAS LOST IT. WE DO NOT BUY PIRATED CDS BECAUSE WE CANT DIFFRENCIATE BETWEEN THE ORIGINAL AND FAKE BUT THAT WE CHOSE TO EVEN WHEN WE KNOW ITS FAKE. REASON BEING THAT IT IS CHEAPER.
FOR US TO BUY AN ORIGINAL CD, YOU MUSICIANS HAS TO START PRICING YOUR CDS REASONABLE SUCH THAT IT BECOMES EXPENSIVE TO BUY A FAKE ONE FOR ME.
Sense in in yo words my dear, especially were u have said blank cds shud be expensive that can do and not avoiding internet downloads, who posts the music online by the way?
The writer of this article is dull, he is just talking about definitions of piracy from google. What miko Zulu argued is that their is no sense for government to waste billions of kwacha on holograms which will not solve the problem, how do u put a hologram on an mp3 on a USB or DVD music I downloaded fro YouTube . Miko was 100%Right
Piracy tayakapwe imwe!
what Mike was saying is that, the hologram can only work if were were only dealing with DVDs. but with today’s technology, how will it help with the file exchange via flash drive, hard drives and via the net. the hologram is an ancient way of fighting piracy. ask your self, how much music do u have as a soft copy on your home computer. how will the hologram fight that that. mike Zulu was right, its useless in time and age unless in the 90s
Dull chap cant even spell Maiko Zulu’s name ati Mailo
What film industry? Where?
@Keller the musicians or publisher’s price takes into account the labour capital used to produce the cd. The pirate’s labour costs ate very little because he steals the product and just duplicates it. His price can ne very low and still give him “profits”
Our musicians are just too good at complaining. They are also into PIRACY. Most of them use pirated computer software to produce their music. Their music is not original…they are now pirating Nigerian tunes
piracy is good in piracy i made my money to pay bills
Senile policy makers should understand that this is old technology and that the world has moved on!
Ask Oliver Mutukudzi and other renouned musicians how they have made their money!
Internet Power friends!
Why would you buy pirated music knowingly? The hologram is supposed to help you know that you are buying stolen property! Why would you knowingly buy stolen property? If the answer is because it’s cheaper then…well…one day uza chosa nsapato na belt pa Emmasdale police!
where one has a great idea, one always opposes i dont blame you, you just dont know your rights. firstly do you know what a hologram means to you the writer of the music? it means that when you print your CD and put your hologram on the CD no one will have the right to sell a CD without your hologram, if the find the kaponya selling CD without a hologram that Kaponya will be in problems. fraud is serious offence that, that kaponya will be charged with about 5 years mundende (Jail). it will guarantee you the musican that all the CDs on the market were bought from him. after the raise enough money the musican will be able to produce a song which any hacker will be unable to hack by blocking from downloading music even when posted on the net. wake up Zambians lets protect our intiatives.
technology benefits everyone so goes the saying. Just like an artist now can sit on a Laptop in the privacy of his home to produce music that may otherwise have required a multitude of talent put together, other people can download,.exchange,share etc music or indeed other forms of files for free or at a minimal fee. Miko Zulu is simply looking ahead. He is telling you that you are bringing stoneage technology to solve a 21st century problem.it wont work.