WAIT A MINUTE – HOLOGRAMS WILL REDUCE PIRACY IN ZAMBIA!

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!

Constraints of Local Film and Television Producers in Growing Capacity and Providing High Quality Local Content– Open letter to ZNBC DG Chibamba Kanyama

The Government of the Republic of Zambia, through its Ministry of Information and Broadcasting responded to calls for a new TV channel that would be used to create a platform for local film and television producers, create additional air space for commercials messages and to generally decongest the main ZNBC channel, hence the advent of TV2.

The launch of this second broadcast channel under the auspices of ZNBC was well received among the film and television society seeing as for the first time in a long time, the public broadcaster ZNBC was commissioning local producers and thus created employment opportunities for the youth.

In proceeding months, there was an influx of production houses and local content flooding the channels, the broadcaster successfully creating capacity and began to harness the local film industry.

With the passing of time, the local film and television society were horrified to learn that the then Commissioning Editor Henry Ngilazi had been relieved of his duties and they had every reason because his replacement was a Mampi Musweu.

In the months that followed, commissioned content was cut and producers sent back to the streets, languishing in poverty and depression. The few producers who remained have all since been frustrated with the exception of the ‘elite’ few.

Reasons given were that the cost of the local content is high compared to the price at which the corporation was acquiring foreign content. Worse off, there were some producers were advanced funds by the broadcaster but have not delivered the desired quality to date.

Granted, most of the content that was on air was poor, however there were a few producers that did produce quality content despite the tight budgets on offer. 

Most of the cream of Zambian film producers have since weaned off commissioning with ZNBC opting for private funded independent film productions and other commercial productions i.e. music videos, TV commercial and sponsored TV content.

In the midst of the radical shift in perspective came an outcry in the film and television society with the likes of Chala Tumelo producer of the famous TV Series ‘Loose Ends’ shouting from the roof top while most of us cowardly whispered our indignation the dark corners for fear of persecution and abuse.

As time went on, we heard of how many people where horrified by their commissioning experience with ZNBC and how they felt that the Commissioning Editor was not as inspiring as the former, that they in fact felt demoralized.

Many in fact went on to conjure various theories, often questioning how a film academic without significant film making experience and one who is understood to have a vested interest being an upcoming film and television producer himself, was given this weighty responsibility to manage important affairs such as commissioning.

It was perhaps a capital mistake for me to ignore calls for his removal and not to support the campaign to have him transferred to another department and replaced with someone impartial, qualified, experienced and suitable with and no vested interests.

Having come into close proximity with Mampi Musweu, I have come to learn with deep shock and disappointment that he inexperience; lack of knowledge, tented reputation among filmmakers is in the way of progress. It is the reason why most prominent and respected film and television producers have shunned the commissioning office leaving ZNBC with no choice but to continuously air foreign content on both channels in preference to export quality local productions.

Shame!

Mampi Musweu is the reason why ZNBC have not been able to attract high quality local content that the TV license paying Zambian public grieve for, he is the reason why we have been denied an opportunity to share our stories and celebrate our culture in our own country! Twachula pafula!

We must be careful now and make responsible decisions as a country. Ignoring the obvious and allowing foreign content to reign over local content is hazardous to the development of our country at so many levels.

If left unchecked, the prevailing situation where the local film and television producers continue to be frustrated by the antics of an individual and the foreign content is promoted ahead of our own, not only we risk inhibiting the growth of an industry with the potential to create thousands of jobs for the youth but we will also ultimately lose a sense of pride and identity as a nation!