South African Recording Industry Association Kicks Off 'Shoot The Pirate' Campaign; Amazed That Real Violence Ensues

from the a-little-perspective,-people dept

Mon, Nov 14th 2011 2:38pm — Mike Masnick

Apparently, the Recording Industry of South Africa (RISA -- the local equivalent of the RIAA) decided to run an "anti-piracy" campaign in that country with the rather astoundingly hyperbolic theme of "Shoot the Pirate." And now, it appears, they're absolutely stunned that this campaign has resulted in actual violence. As part of the campaign, a bunch of artists supporting RISA took to the streets to confront vendors of counterfeit CDs, and some brawls ensued -- leading to the arrest of a singer who physically attacked a vendor. And now some are claiming that death threats are being issued to those who put forth the campaign. Perhaps the choice of "shoot the pirate" wasn't exactly the best rhetorical choice for encouraging a reasoned response to some business model problems.

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Filed Under: copyright, piracy, south africa, violence
Companies: risa

29 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2011 @ 2:51pm

Yeah "Shoot the Pirate" when there are real Pirates(think Somalian pirates) probably not a wise idea.
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monkyyy, 14 Nov 2011 @ 2:59pm

riaa profits, more important then life its self
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Jeff Nolan (profile), 14 Nov 2011 @ 3:06pm

My favorite quote in the attached article was:
"A brawl ensued which at its height involved artists, vendors and police, who reportedly beat up the artists� supporters. The protesters then moved on and had another brawl with more pirates at another location."

It's right out of a Mel Brooks movie...
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2011 @ 3:13pm

Re:
*RISA* *itself*
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PlagueSD (profile), 14 Nov 2011 @ 3:15pm

Re:
Is it too late to claim movie rights on this?
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anonymous, 14 Nov 2011 @ 3:25pm

i think it's exactly what the entertainment industries want. to go back to how it was when people were tortured and hung for copying fabrics as in the days of old. they think that their mechandise, copyrights, control and way of life are more important than life itself!
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A Guy (profile), 14 Nov 2011 @ 3:30pm

Re: Re:
No...

It's never too late to get some sort of broad intellectual monopoly here in the United States.

Ask a former SUN engineer, no one competent actually reviews these things, just keep submitting requests making completely inconsequential changes if rejected until someone decides "fuck it good enough." Congrats, you now have your own little monopoly and America's competitive edge dies a little more.
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The eejit (profile), 14 Nov 2011 @ 3:51pm

Re:
NO-ONE EXPECTS THE CONTENT INQUISITON! OUR CHIEF WEAPON IS FEAR, FEAR AND SURPRISE...
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2011 @ 4:15pm

And the shills say the pirates wouldn't hit back, they were wrong.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2011 @ 4:19pm

I guess this is kind of a cognitive dissonance thing.
There is this group of people that create imaginary boundaries and are unable to understand that inside society there are real boundaries that should never be crossed, you expect that those people would understand that more than others that those lines are there since they depend on them, but no, idiots believe boundaries are only for others and not themselves and when they get beaten in public for crossing those lines they get shocked.
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 14 Nov 2011 @ 5:08pm

It is a shame that the artists involved can't comprehend that people want their music, but that the price might be to high. I'm no expert on what the CDs cost in South Africa but rather than inciting violence one would think a better idea would be to look at what they are charging vs what the label wants to charge. How far apart is the price point?

What kind of value could they add to the real releases to attract more customers?

Are the artists upset because they have bad contracts for tours? Getting more people interested in your work means more people will try to attend your shows and look for other things that you do. Or are they just being told we can't pay you what we promised because pirates stole all the money, when it is just the labels lining their pockets first?
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2011 @ 5:14pm

Re: Re: Re:
Perhaps a solution is that for each rejection, each subsequent submission requires a greater processing fee.
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Autumn, 14 Nov 2011 @ 5:39pm

How could they know?
It's been argued here before that video games don't increase violence. If actually pretending to shoot people doesn't increase the likelihood that you're going to shoot someone, how can you honestly say that the campaign organizers should have seen that violence would have ensued by simply having a "Shoot the Pirate" slogan?

I don't think it's best choice of slogan, but I also don't think you could say they should have been able to predict this.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2011 @ 5:56pm

Re: How could they know?
"Shoot the Pirate" on its own? No. "Shoot the Pirate" plus publicly confronting people face-to-face? Definitely.
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Autumn, 14 Nov 2011 @ 6:25pm

Re: Re: How could they know?
Good point. I still don't think the slogan had much to do with it though. I suspect that confronting people as it sounds like they did with a slogan of "Piracy is Bad" would have resulted in the same outcome.
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 14 Nov 2011 @ 6:52pm

Re: Re: How could they know?
I am sure that the people who showed up to protest were well behaved and did nothing to get a response.

/sarc

Has the world learned nothing from the US and its turning the dial to 11 on "issues"? When you go out of your way to go well over the top, you tend to bring out the worst in people.
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TOG, 14 Nov 2011 @ 8:15pm

Re: How could they know?
You stole the words from my fingers. As soon as I read the headline, I had essentially the same thought.

Can't talk out of both sides of your mouth at the same time, despite how tempting it may be to do so.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2011 @ 9:27pm

Re: How could they know?
Let me help you with this. Replace "Pirate" with "Prostitute". How smart does this sound now?
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Rambo919 (profile), 14 Nov 2011 @ 10:12pm

Long story short, South Africa is a collection of collections of tribes that every now and again like to beat each other to next Tuesday(and that's saying it censored). The only thing the people here truely understand here is force, that goes for all the races involved...fortunately the more civilized groups here only go as far a low violence hehehe it's fun dammit!
With that said piracy vendors would not do so well if the people themselves did not support them. RISA's idiot refusal to observe reality is their funeral.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2011 @ 11:12pm

Re: Re: How could they know?
"You stole the words from my fingers."

Infringement!
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A Guy (profile), 15 Nov 2011 @ 1:11am

Re: Re: Re: Re:
That's not a bad idea.

However, how much (superficial) change is required before it's a new invention and not a modified version of an old one.

Once that standard is set, that will be exactly how much the patent application changes to avoid the higher fees.
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IronM@sk, 15 Nov 2011 @ 1:23am

Re: Re:
*than*
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haiku, 15 Nov 2011 @ 3:13am

>> I'm no expert on what the CDs cost in South Africa

$15.00++ for the 'boy-band' stuff, more for jazz etc.

If one considers that the people involved in the dispute probably earn less than $700 per month take-home (i.e. after taxes) you soon realise why the pirates are successful.

On the lighter side: on one occasion the police proudly announced that they had tracked & closed down a seller of counterfeit DVDs. Given that the counterfeiter had a shop in one of the better shopping malls ... 8)
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haiku, 15 Nov 2011 @ 3:14am

>> I'm no expert on what the CDs cost in South Africa

$15.00++ for the 'boy-band' stuff, more for jazz etc.

If one considers that the people involved in the dispute probably earn less than $700 per month take-home (i.e. after taxes) you soon realise why the pirates are successful.

On the lighter side: on one occasion the police proudly announced that they had tracked & closed down a seller of counterfeit DVDs. Given that the counterfeiter had a shop in one of the better shopping malls ... 8)
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Matthew A. Sawtell, 15 Nov 2011 @ 9:26am

For those that are curious, look up "Kill the Boer"...
To Mike and the rest of the peanut gallery, best to look up "Kill the Boer" on your favorite search engine. The long and short of it that the RISA knew exactly what it was going to see with their campaign. As for the counterfeiters... if they have ANC or ANCYL connections, it will be very interesting to see how fast the RISA issues an official apology.
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ltlw0lf (profile), 15 Nov 2011 @ 12:01pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
However, how much (superficial) change is required before it's a new invention and not a modified version of an old one.

Since we're wishing, my wish would be that the requirement be based on the content industry's interpretation of Remix's. If you cannot build it from scratch in a vacuum, and there is anything that looks remotely like someone else's work, then it should be rejected. That way those who are truly inventive will be rewarded.

The bad news is we've basically invalidated every patent since the invention of the wheel...but I'm good with that. Have to draw the line somewhere.
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Jeffrey Nonken (profile), 15 Nov 2011 @ 3:26pm

Aren't pirates supposed to be hanged?

Mmmmmm. I can smell the lynch mobs from here.
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Jeffrey Nonken (profile), 15 Nov 2011 @ 3:28pm

Aren't pirates supposed to be hanged?

Mmmmmm. I can smell the lynch mobs from here.
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Jeffrey Nonken (profile), 15 Nov 2011 @ 4:31pm

Re:
Oops, sorry for the duplicate. Stupid cheap-ass excuse for an Internet connection keeps stalling and I thought it didn't post.

(It's what I get for reading Techdirt at work.)
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