Media piracy study

This is a two-year research project (starting February 2008) into the nature and extent of media piracy and the effect of anti-piracy legislative and enforcement frameworks on access to knowledge in South Africa. The research will be carried out by a research team contracted by APC.

A team of researchers and consultants will assist the project, working in tandem with an international project on media piracy conducted by the Social Science Research Council (New York) – in collaboration with research teams in Brazil, India and Russia.

The project seeks to:

• produce a detailed study of enforcement infrastructure and the anti-piracy industry, including government structures, industry lobbies, corporate legal firms, and the links to judicial and police strategies. This will also include details of ownership of media and recording industries. Attempts will also be made to evaluate the costs involved in fighting piracy – and if such costs are greater than any gains.
• open a different debate on piracy other than the standard ones of enforcement and criminality. This debate can lead to wider discussions of cultural needs and community practices of sharing and circulation, in societies characterized by conditions of high social inequality. This will include both debate and discussion within South Africa and between project partners in countries such as Brazil, India and Russia.
• analyse methodologies for gathering statistics in enforcement literature retailed by media industry lobbies in order to test presumptions the quality of the data. This will include analysis of the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) methodologies and the impact of such studies. Such statistics are utilized by international enforcement bodies and international and local rights holders to limit any debates about intellectual property to issues of piracy and legislative and enforcement frameworks.
• gain an understanding of the nature and extent of piracy amongst different communities in South Africa – and the reasons for piracy. This will include:

a) analysis of piracy as an economic sector (jobs),
b) the diversity of supply of pirated goods (what is pirated and what is not and why),
c) the extent of sales of pirated local goods vs. international goods,
d) whether or not piracy has assisted in facilitating the emergence of cultural industries on the periphery,
e) distribution networks.
f) examining what drives the growth of the piracy business (i.e. is it a pricing problem, supply problem or a timing problem?). Note that different communities may be pirating goods for different reasons.
g) whether or not piracy supports licit sales.
h) explore the extent and forms of digital piracy by broadband internet users.

• generate a public debate using new and traditional forms of media to disseminate the research report, its findings and recommendations with the aim of influencing the policy debate.
• disseminate the results to the South African Department of Trade and Industry and Parliamentary Committee on trade and Industry through hosting a seminar for them
• disseminate the results to the India Brazil South Africa (IBSA) civil society forum to engage with the existing government IBSA Forum on the information society and intellectual property rights implications of the research.