Music pirates beat anti-piracy technology?

MONKAGEDI GAOTLHOBOGWE
Staff Writer | Monday November 15, 2010 00:00

Ekentolo Vol 3, undoubtedly the most sought-after musical offering this Festive Season, continues to suffer from piracy as thousands of pirated copies were recently impounded in Gaborone, Jwaneng, Mahalapye, and other places around the country.

Kabelo Mogwe, the man behind Ekentolo Vol 3, says he has confiscated bags of pirated material of the Festive Season album, which features the hit track, Ke Sia Le Matebele.  This is despite having used the anti-piracy technology advertised early in the year by a local organisation.

'It would seem that with patience, pirates have been able to crack the code; our fans, luckily for us, really care and often phone us from various parts of the country to alert us about pirated copies of the hot album. 

Had it not been for piracy, this album would be doing much better in terms of sales, but we are being disadvantaged by the pirates,' Mogwe said in an interview with Showtime.

Late last year, DDS studios announced the arrival of a new CD printing machine, which blocks CD users from downloading and writing tracks on their computers.

Discussing the new technology with Showtime, a company spokesperson had said then that the technology was designed to make it impossible to load CD tracks into ipods, computers or transfer music files via bluetooth technology into cell phones as MP3s or MP4s.

The importers of the technology were upbeat it would put to end rampant piracy and ensure top sellers get their reward.

The technology, according to its importers, is Internet-based, and has its server based in the United States of America (US), where it was invented.

However, the experience of Ekentolo Vol 3 project shows that somehow the much-hyped anti-piracy technology is not foolproof after all.

However, the Matebele album continues to take the country by storm, and since they launched their festive tours about four weeks ago, Ekentolo's concerts at Paje, Zebras Club, Orapa, Thebe-Phatshwa, Selebi-Phikwe and Kalamari, have all been hugely successful, according to Mogwe.

He told Showtime that in fact, their October 29 show at Thebe-Phatshwa was so packed they had to lock out fans because there was no space anymore. 'Thebe-Phatshwa people tell me they had never seen such a packed show before,' he said.