These vendors advertise a range of covers of the latest American movies such as “The Transporter 2”, “Hotel Rwanda”, “Hitcher”, “Instinct” and older films such as “Bowling for Columbine”, “Oceans 11” and Terminator 2 at low prices.
Freker is the owner of a video outlet at Village Mall in Gaborone. Since the advent of phony digital video discs (DVDs) from South East Asia, America and Britain, Freker and other video outlet managers have been reeling from what they refer to as “unfair business practice” from hawkers. “Pirates are so organised,” Freker says.
She confirms that her video outlet is the oldest in Gaborone. “I am the only person in Gaborone who is selling legitimate master copies. I have been here for 30 years; I buy from Warner Bros and NuMetro through their South African agents. Anyone buying from elsewhere is a parallel buyer and is breaking the law,” announces Freker.
Much like Freker, an employee at Take That Video at Kgale Mall is equally concerned about phony video hawkers parading the city’s streets. “They sell videos much earlier than the cinemas release them here, so no one can resist the temptation. They are killing our business,” he says. While he did not want to sound xenophobic, he pointed out that the Chinese are mostly the ones who bring the “stuff here”. “There is nothing you can do about it. A movie released today in China will be sold in the streets the following morning here. This is not efficiency, it is pure cheating,” he muses.
These makeshift businesspeople line sidewalks in busy business areas such as in Gaborone main mall and the bus station. When a potential customer inquires about a movie, the hawker scoots away and returns with an armful of DVDs. The hawker generally peddles more than one movie since the disks are priced at less than half the cost of the originals.“It’s cheaper so why wouldn’t people buy?” asks one of the hawkers, reluctant to give his name. “It’s OK for the big shots to say we shouldn’t be selling them, but this is our bread and butter.” A collection of Michael Moore films cost P25. These include: “Bowling for Columbine” and “Fahrenheit 9-11.” Tshireletso Motlogelwa, an emerging local filmmaker, has two views regarding pirating. “I will give you my professional and personal view,” he says.
From a professional point of view, Motlogelwa argues that pirated films reduce the business of the conventional movie seller. “Obviously business will shrink for those who sell conventional videos,” he says.
On the other hand, Motlogelwa argues that as soon as the movie is released, Hollywood does not care as it could have already made a lot of money from the movie. This is his personal view. “They won’t care whether Capitol and Riverwalk cinema make money or not,” says Motlogelwa. But Hollywood’s growing ignorance and popularity abroad means more money in the pirates’ pockets. Pirated disks are easily available in most streets in the country’s cities and towns. The growing appetite for illegal disks in other countries such as Britain, the United States and Pakistan has filmmakers worried. The story is the same everywhere. Bollywood filmmakers in India are also quoted to be reeling from pirating. “I’ve seen my movies pirated in streets abroad and it makes my heart bleed because it means I’m not getting my rightful share,” an Indian producer, Mukesh Bhatt was reported as saying. “It’s a major, major problem. One master disk is all you need for duplication.”
In the US, over the past two years spice and gift stores in Chicago, California and Virginia have been raided. In Britain, pirated disks have been seized from video stores and grocery shops in Southall, Wembley, East London, Manchester and Bradford. But despite anti-piracy initiatives and codes written into disks to make duplication difficult, piracy is rampant, says Avtar Panesar, head of global operations for Yashraj Films. He estimates that the Indian movie industry loses between $30 million (P16.5 million) and $50 million (P275 million) every year to piracy.
Debbie Denman is an agent of Ster kinekor in South Africa. She said while the situation is not as prevalent as it appears to be in Botswana, she pointed out that there are not enough raids carried out by police on suspected pirates. “We need assistance from the police and other government officials,” cries Denman. Films in South Africa are often pirated from the actual prints or masters. Counterfeiting from the original DVDs occur later.
Freker stresses the need for cooperation between the police, judiciary and lawmakers. “This is a problem that could destroy our businesses and the embryonic film industry,” she told Showbiz last week. “Piracy affects not just Hollywood and not just the big films, it also affects local filmmakers.”
An official at Botswana Bureau of Standards (BoBS) said the issue of intellectual property (IP) is pertinent and needs to be addressed at the earliest opportunity. While he admitted that they do not have specifications especially from the quality and safety point of view, he noted that those countries they ordered from, govern conventional DVDs. “Fonkongs too are governed by certain standards,” says a BoBS officer, reluctant to give his name.
The Botswana government does not have an effective anti-piracy legislation. Without organised association aimed at curbing piracy, pirated movies continue to be watched not just by the average consumer, but also by people in the movie business.
Hawkers on the other hand defend their business. They say their business is not harmful. “It’s not like we’re selling fake drugs that can kill people or fake products like creams or soaps that can harm people,” says hawker Danish Mahesh dwindling his wares like a carrot. “A pirated movie doesn’t hurt the customer. It helps his pocket. So why would people stop coming to us?” he asks, half jokingly.
