Audio-visual industry loses over Lm1 million to piracy
by David Kelleher
The sale of pirated products on the local market is rampant, according to figures released by the Association Against Copyright Theft (AACT) who carried out a survey of the Valletta open market earlier this week.
The numbers were gathered by AACT investigators who went to the local hawker markets and purchased copies of pirated products. At the same time, they calculated the amount of pirated products available on that stall.
Two surveys were carried out by AACT investigators last Sunday and Monday, just a day after the police carried out a raid on the same market. According to the police report, a number of CDs and videos were confiscated.
However, the AACT figures give a totally different picture, with more than just a "handful" of pirated products being sold at the Sunday and daily markets.
Contacted yesterday, Joe Borg, a leading exponent against the sale of pirated products and managing director of Visual and Sound Communications Ltd, said the figures were alarming and of great concern to the industry.
On Sunday, AACT investigators found a total of 11,500 pirated music CDs, 300 videos, 300 VCDs, and 7,000 Playstation games. They identified 12 stalls selling pirated material.
On Monday, a total of 9,600 CDs, 60 pirated videos, 300 VCDs and 250 pirated Playstation games were found on sale at nine different stalls.
"The sale of pirated products is badly affecting the local industry and these figures are alarming and of great concern. It is difficult to calculate how much the legitimate industry is losing annually, but the figure is surely in excess of Lm1m," Mr Borg told The Malta Business Weekly.
Individuals selling pirated products are making an enormous profit without high production overheads. A legitimate music CD costs on average Lm6.95, but they are sold on the market for Lm2.50.
Taking the figure for Sunday, 11,500 CDs at a retail outlet would cost Lm79,925. Hawkers are selling the same number of CDs for Lm28,750. Taking off the purchase of an empty CD-Rom, cover printing expenses and the box, hawkers make a profit in excess of Lm24,000.
Mr Borg said that last year sales went down by around 30 per cent even though piracy was not the only factor.
"But a good part of that drop was due to piracy," Mr Borg said. He added that the sale of computer games had gone down tremendously and it was now "very difficult to sell a legitimate game".
Mr Borg said that the association's investigators, through their lawyer, would file an official complaint with the police, who then have to take the necessary action.
Yet, the Association is not resting on its laurels and will be launching a consumer awareness campaign aimed at educating the public on the effects of piracy and why it always pays to buy legitimate copies.
This campaign is also being extended to dealers and shop owners.
"We will be signing an agreement with dealers and shop outlets in which they commit themselves to selling only legitimate products. In turn, they will receive a certificate showing customers that products available from that outlet are genuine," Mr Borg told The Malta Business Weekly.
He added that the dealers' names would also be featured in the advertising campaign. Dealers will also become members of the Association. At present, members include two foreign and two local bodies - MPA and ISPI, KRS Distributors and VSC Ltd.
The Association's role is to protect the music, video and film industry from piracy. It does not, as yet, cover software piracy.
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