Piracy – a Crime or not a Crime?

In the west we have easy access to the latest blockbusters and chart topping music. With the rise of the internet, that’s now more accessible than ever with digital downloads and streaming services become more and more dominant.That being said, piracy is still a big business (well, can you call it  a business if it doesn’t make any money?) and many people still choose to download their music and movies for free (all be it illegally).

Here in Uganda things are a little different. You can pirate things like anywhere in the world using the internet, but here they are lacking one fundamental thing. A way of purchasing films and music legally. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, I’m just saying I haven’t found it yet. No there are plenty of places to buy the latest music, TV series or blockbuster movies. Every 10th store is selling them – freshly downloaded from the wordwideweb and kindly burned to a DVD ready for you to take home. Complete with photocopy of the original dvd case. Some of these stores, interestingly enough are placed right outside the police station (which in way, ends up endorsing the practice).

So it is still illegal, in a country which doesn’t seemed to have any form of licensing or legal distribution of this content?

Why isn’t there a legal distribution channel here in Uganda? Well I can think of some reasons perhaps why. In the UK, we can pay up £12 for the latest DVD’s when they first come out. Considering the average Ugandan salary to be around £40* (a month), you can see that the same content is never going to sell for its value in this economy. No one is going to pay a quarter of their income for a film.

Well the price could be adjusted to reflect the relative value in the local currency. Just like the same film may cost $12 in the US (again I’m guessing), and £12 in the UK, why not charge 1200 shillings (or something similar). That after all was the purpose (I believe) of the region system for DVD’s. The same content could be sold at different prices in different areas, without people being able to buy it cheaper in one country and use it in another.

The region system isn’t really used now though – if you can buy a DVD player that can play all regions, it kind of defeats the point! So why haven’t they sold dvd’s or used digital downloads here in Uganda?

I think the answer is simple. There is no money in it. DVD’s sell here for 1000 shillings (at the current rate, that’s less than 20 pence). There is no way any studio or music label will be able to make any money selling their licensed content here. It’s just not worth the hassle of trying to distribute it. And maybe, just maybe, its cheaper to leave them too it. Maybe it would be more expensive for them to try and sell their content, than to leave them as they are?

So where does that leave us, should you buy copies of movies and music here, or should you be forced to go without entirely? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

*An approximation from discussion I’ve had with people, rather than an exact figure.

By Andy Galpin

Strategy Consultant for IBM. Passionate about God, and equipping His church to fulfil the great commission. Blog on mission, life and leadership. My opinions are all my own and do not represent IBM.

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