Pirates of the streets

Piracy is a massive industry. I am not referring to the pirates on the high seas, which still do exist pretty freely to this day, in one form or the other. I am referring to piracy of films, music, T shirts and so on.

Let me begin to say that I do not support or agree, or even try to justify this or any type of piracy.
Having said that, I am going to try to look at the reasons behind it.

One reason, it the speed at which items like movies or music are released. Often there is a massive hype around such releases, aimed at drumming up support and anticipation. This fanfare is not wasted and a need is created. The hungry public cannot wait for the release. Then of course, somehow it is leaked and finds it's way into the black market- where people can purchase these items, often well before their official release. Many cannot resist this juicy temptation, and purchase the forbidden fruit just to see it early. Added to this, release dates are staggered worldwide. Thus we can buy copies of pirate movies for example, before it is released on cinema here. Granted, it is a dodgy copy, filmed by some genius with a cam and a tripod. And if you can get past the people standing up every now and then, the chuckling and chatting and the occasional camera fall, then wow, you see it early. It sounds silly, but people still pruchase these copies. Others are pirated at the studios, and these are of a better quality.

Another, and I think the driving cause of piracy is cost. In South Africa, new DVDs are around R159 and CD's about the same. Piated DVD's range from R30 to around R60. Branded T shirts at the mainstream shops range from R150-R300, sometimes more. Rip-offs are priced at bewteen R50 to around R120. (You can haggle of course)
The majority of our population earn very low salaries and don't have money to spare to purchase high priced items. Even those that can afford the high prices, would prefer to pirate items-which usually have a much lower quality that the authentic item. This to me, goes a long way of indicating that price is an overiding factor.

When visual and audio shops or even clothes stores have sales- they reduce the prices of these items to ridiculous levels. I do not think that they would sell the items at a loss, thus are making some profit from these 'sales'.This raises the question- what greedy profits are they aiming for by marking these items up on release?

The artists go on TV, climb out of their luxury cars, and cry because they are being robbed out of much needed funds. How many are really battling financially like their fans- I can honestly say, not many. Just look at how many reside in posh suburbs.
Each industry, be it clothes outlets or the visual audio industry, gripes about piracy and the damage it is doing. I have no doubt it does.
Of course they do not confront the root cause though.
In their corporate meetings when they sit all proud of the millions they are making, when they chuckle at putting up prices and look, with glee, at projected profits, they will not admit that they are the root casue of piracy. They are adding fuel to the piracy fire, due to the fact is they won't decrease prices.

The reality is, piracy will never die. Having said that, reduced prices would bring it down by a massive percent. Many people would prefer to purchase the authentic item, often of better quality, if it were a more affordable price. I don't purchase pirated DVD's or CD's- not because I have any moral problems therewith, because frankly I don't. (yes, yes, I know it is wrong)I would rather be patient and purchase the items on sales, where I can buy the quality item.

My message to the corporates- look at the reasons for piracy, accept you are the cause, and fix it!