FROM H-METRO PIRACY KILLING THE ARTS Editorial Mushinga THE shocking pictures of thousands of the Gringo Troublemaker movie pirated CDs are clear evidence of how big a virus piracy has become in Zimbabwe. The work that Enock Chihombori took over five years writing, producing and gathering resources to bring out is going to benefit some other person who was probably drinking while Chihombori and his team worked. When pirates are caught, the sentence is usually community service or a few hundreds of dollars fine yet those people are making hundreds of thousands of dollars through piracy. Our law makers need to put themselves in the shoes of artistes because right now, are playing a role very much akin to that of accomplices as far as piracy is concerned. Two days ago, a man who was found guilty of pirating the Gringo movie was sentenced to 105 hours of community service. The Mbare vendor who was found with 600 pirated discs belonging to Alick Macheso’s new album Kwatabva Mitunhu (Kure kure) and more than 1200 other albums for local artists soon after Macheso’s album was released was fined US$100? At this rate people are going to quit their jobs and become music pirates because the return is too good to be true. You become your own master, buy some blank discs, burn music with your laptop and sell the discs at a dollar each – or even dollar for two, as is the case with the Gringo pirated DVDs. If you produce in bulk, like the people who were nabbed yesterday who had thousands of copies of Gringo Troublemaker, you can get thousands of dollars and just put aside US100 as potential operational costs. Many pirates must know how lenient the law against piracy is and many readily plead guilty to the charge when nabbed knowing they will be ordered to pay US$100 with an option of 30 days in jail or perform community service. To be caught with illegal property worth US$5000 and then go to court and walk out with a fine of US$100 is the greatest reward you can ever give a criminal. If you look at the bigger picture as far as the Gringo movie is concerned, it is obvious there is a shark behind the whole scheme. A man or men with expensive complex machinery that reproduces thousands of discs per hour and then send runners to distribute the discs to vendors. That is not only killing Chihombori, the maker of the movie; that is killing the arts industry as a whole. Why is government quiet about this virus that is eating into our arts sector? Why is the police walking past music and movie pirates every day of their lives. The penalties imposed on these criminals who are as good, rather as bad as rapists or murderers defy logic and if anything encourages people to enter into the profitable ‘business’ of piracy. These sentences probably explain why music pirates are littered all over Harare’s central business district (CBD) and actually lay their cardboard offices in all the pavements in town, right in front of the police. They know that no harm will come onto them. The penalty for such crimes should be commensurate with the nature of the crime and the amount stolen from the wronged people – in this case, artistes. So if there is no legislation in place to curb piracy and discourage want-to-be thieves from entering into piracy, then it is time for the law makers to sit down and find a way to stop this scourge that is threatening to kill our artistes. Penalties for crime, whilst they are not meant to destroy the perpetrators, must at least discourage criminals from engaging in the said crime. The need to put in place stiffer penalties becomes more urgent when the crime in question is rampant. Gringo Pirate found guilty By Blessing Masakadza A HARARE man will perform 105 hours of unpaid work after he was caught in a movie house while recording a local comedy, Gringo the Troublemaker on his I-pad. The comedy features local comedian Lazarus Boora, popularly known as Gringo and it is not yet on DVD and is being screened in local theatres. Emmanuel Manyawi had denied the allegations of contravening the Copyright Act when he appeared before Harare magistrate Anita Tshuma. He was convicted after a full trial and was slapped with six months imprisonment. Three months were suspended for five years on condition of good behaviour. The remaining three months were set aside on condition that he completes 105 hours of community service. It was proved that on May 13 this year, at around 5.30pm, the accused went to Rainbow City to watch the movie. Rainbow City manager, Garikai Nemi, was reportedly checking the smooth running of the movie house, when he found Manyawi recording the movie while it was playing on the big screen using his HTC tablet. He was arrested. State counsel Francesca Mukumbiri prosecuted. PIRATES NABBED IN MBARE . . . as anti-piracy team raids Mbare Musika + pix By Nyasha Kada Pirates ran amok at Mbare Musika yesterday after a surprise early morning raid conducted by the police and anti-piracy team and thousands of duplicated local movies and music discs were recovered, with at least five suspects being arrested. It appears Mbare Musika has become a ‘hub of piracy’ as evidenced by trunk loads of pirated discs shipment that were being offloaded by the transporters to the ‘runners’ who sell the discs on the ground. The massive quantity of the pirated discs gave strong suspicion that a cash rich ‘third force’ was behind this piracy syndicate. Only five suspects were arrested namely Joseph Chibanda, Andrew Makoni, Laureen Chingware, Edmond Makuwe and Peter Zuze after they were found in possession of trunk loads of pirated discs that were dominated by Gringo Troublemaker movie. Interestingly, producers did NOT avail the movie on DVD format and its leakage is still under investigation. Entertainment industry players suggested that the arrest could be only a tip of the iceberg and if the suspects are interrogated, they might expose the ‘syndicate boss’, who produces and distributes the discs to the vendors at Mbare Musika. Such speculation arose basing on the fact that production of such large quantities of discs requires a sophisticated replication machine which can only be afforded by a cash rich individual or syndicate. Anti-piracy officials have vowed to get deep to the root of the problem and intensify their raids. Speaking to H-Metro at the scene yesterday morning , anti-piracy official Maxwell Musaerenge vowed to intensify the raids. “We are going to be raiding all market places more often now and we are going to be arresting anyone who is in possession of pirated stuff and this is a continuous process. “So far we are starting with the capital city but we are looking forward to going nationwide and try and reduce the rate of piracy that is in the country,” he said. He revealed that he has become a target of some of the chief pirates who have threatened him with death. “I am now a target in Mbare and the pirates continue to threaten me with death, but I want to tell them that we shall not stop to arrest them as long as they are on the wrong side. “Our aim is to protect the artistes and their product,” he said. Rainbow Cinemas general manager Anthony Chinyama, who was also part of the crack team that raided Mbare Musika, said his organisation rallied behind the anti-piracy campaign. “As Rainbow movies we are also supporting anti piracy. For instance, this Gringo Troublemaker movie was doing well at the cinemas and we are looking forward to bringing back the movie on the big screen soon. “We had stopped showing it waiting for the school holidays but we have decided to show the movie again any day from now,” said Chinyama. Piracy has become a major threat to the local film industry. Recently, a city man was caught filming Gringo Troublemaker with his I-Pad and he was reportedly sentenced to six months behind bars. Such deterrent sentences are being championed by anti-piracy bodies across the country.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 18:35:59 +0000
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