Piracy is the reason why movies do poorly at the box office. NOT!

I caught Special Assignment on SABC TV last night. Something I never do. But I did. It was all about piracy of DVDs and CDs in South-Africa, and how the street and flea market vendors are causing huge losses of income to the movie houses, actors, directors, producers and all those kinds of people involved in the movie industry. There were images of guys with plastic bags filled with DVDs were selling them to cars that stop at the intersections. Videos of raids-in-progress at flea markets, where vendors at the flea market just run out of their stall and away, leaving all of their stock right there. And there was a lot of stock!

I can see how piracy can have this effect of profit loss. I don’t condone DVD or music piracy. It’s wrong to make money off of somebody else’s hard work. I’d feel pretty pissed off if I had to create a masterpiece and want to share it with the world and make money off of it, and some pirate at a publication house or reproduction facility makes his own copy, takes it home, makes more copies, and starts selling these copies on the street for a fraction of the price, weeks before the movie is to be released. Yes, I’d be pissed off.

But will I do what Leon Schuster and Anant Singh did? No. They blamed the piracy for the poor performance of their movie (specifically Mama Jack), on piracy. The show had some gospel artist (her name is Rebecca Malope) bitching about how her CD was being sold for R16! R16! She went on and on and on. And how, God help her, she won’t know what she’ll do if she’d be faced with somebody that’s selling her CD for R16. God help her she says. She was bitching that, after 21 years in the industry, she *still* can’t buy herself a Porche. And how other people can’t eat or put their kids through school, because of this DVD piracy! Hey, people, maybe you’re over estimating your market share here. Leon, Anant, did you ever think that maybe the movie is not that good a movie, and hey Rebecca, did you ever think that not that many people buy your CDs to begin with, and that’s you don’t have a Porche? Apparently, according to the show, Rebecca is “The most pirated artist in South-Africa”. Bullshit. I don’t see it. A gospel artist the most pirated? I really don’t see it.

The underlying problem that Special Assignment highlighted is true though. There are people out there that’s making money off of other people’s hard work. That is wrong, and it must be stopped. The problem that I have with what the show was highlighting, for effect more than accuracy of the information, is that they highlighted, mostly, South-African movies as being targets of piracy. Mama Jack and Tsotsi being the two names being thrown around. They show showed cops rummaging through a bunch of pirated DVDs at a flea market stall and at some pirates raided house, and then audible gasps are heard when they come across a Mama Jack or Tsotsi DVD. Bollocks. That’s right. These movies didn’t do so good because of piracy. Yes, that may be true, but don’t miss the fact that these movies could very well also have been totally crap, and nobody wanted to see them, and that’s a bigger reason why? I wouldn’t know, haven’t seen either of ‘em. Leon Schuster’s movies stopped being funny when he started making actual fictional movies instead of gag movies like Oh Shucks It’s Schuster. Now those movies were funny. If you like Leon Schuster’s movies, support him and buy the Leon Schuster Digipack. 8 DVDs of quality Leon Schuster goodness. Mama Jack is not in there though, you’ll have to stop over at your local intersection to buy that.

Jacob Zuma found not-guilty

So, Jacob Zuma was found not-guilty on the charge of rape brought against him by his accuser, an HIV positive AIDS activist. And a lesbian apparently, although she claims to have had several male lovers. I don’t care for politics, I honestly don’t. So I don’t care for what the trial may or may not have done to Zuma’s image. If he managed to put himself into a situation where he can be accused of rape, then he needs to own up and defend himself. Which is what he did.

I didn’t follow the trial closely, only picking up bits from the radio and TV news. What did become apparent through-out the trial though, was that the prosecution’s case was not as strong as it should (or could?) have been. Which brings me to the following. There’s a distinct difference between being found not-guilty on a criminal charge, and being innocent of that same charge. Being innocent is a claim that a defender makes, and is a fact, and total truth. It cannot be changed from that. You’re either innocent, or you’re not. However, being *found* not-guilty of a crime, purely means that, in a court of law, your defense attorney made a better case for your alleged innocence, than the prosecuting attorney did of your alleged guilt. This bothers me. I agree that it’s best to assume innocence until proven guilty, but I find it utterly stupid that an accused’s life is in the hands of 2 lawyers and a judge (OK, and a jury, but this wasn’t the case…). Our local talk radio station had some great quotes yesterday after the verdict, one woman said that it is very difficult for a rape victim to be told that, yes, you told your story, but the judge is finding for the defendant, which effectively means that you are being told you’re a liar. And she has a good point! Now rape is difficult to prove, unless you have video or eyewitness evidence, and/or physical evidence such as bruises, marks, sperm and/or forced intercourse evidence. But in the Zuma rape case, the accuser only came forward weeks after the incident, by which time any such physical evidence would have been gone. So I think that the case was weak from the beginning, with most of the case hinging on his word against hers, and in such cases, it’s usually the defense that wins.

Well, there are some good things that came out of this trial, that men and women everywhere can take to heart:

• According to Jacob Zuma, it’s sufficient to take a shower after having unprotected sex with an HIV positive person
• If you wear a skirt, you’re practically begging to be raped
• Apparently being accused of a crime can get you money, seeing that the ANC seemed to want to change their policy, so that the Vice-President of the party actually does get a salary.
• It doesn’t matter how ugly you are or how little hair you’ve got, it is possible to convince a lesbian to have sex with you.

OK, so that list was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but those are actual events.

Whatever. I’m tired and I’m ranting.

Peace out.