Why blocking piracy websites in South Africa is a terrible idea

Bradley Prior

Bradley Prior

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There is nothing you can block access to on the internet, you can make it difficult, to access, but blocking is ineffective, and only idiots see it as a solution. Piracy, is an attitude issue, sort the attitude out, and the issue will go away. An attitude of, "We are right, and they are wrong" is a recipe for failure, from the outset.
 
elf_lord_ZC5 said:
There is nothing you can block access to on the internet, you can make it difficult, to access, but blocking is ineffective, and only idiots see it as a solution. Piracy, is an attitude issue, sort the attitude out, and the issue will go away. An attitude of, "We are right, and they are wrong" is a recipe for failure, from the outset.
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Alternatively have fairly priced and freely available options. That makes the problem largely irrelevant.
 
hungrymamba said:
What is a fair price though? R10 per movie?
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That's for the market to decide. If people are flocking to other sources or outright rejecting it then it's clearly too expensive.
 
LazyLion said:
The best way to fight piracy is through pricing and distribution.
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Exactly. I've always maintained that piracy is not a problem but a symptom of a problem.

Music and video game piracy is dead compared to other entertainment mediums. Hollywood needs to stop thinking that a single film is worth a month of Netflix or more.

hungrymamba said:
What is a fair price though? R10 per movie?
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Once-off purchases are behind us. Streaming is what people want. A fixed monthly rate for access to infinitely more content than the fee would otherwise be capable of purchasing.
 
Slootvreter said:
Until it's free, there will always be piracy.
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I'm not 100% convinced of that. I think that most people would be quite happy to support the artist(s) involved in the creation of the media (music/film/etc). What people don't like is all the middle-men that add so much to the eventual cost of consuming the media "legally".
 
Slootvreter said:
Until it's free, there will always be piracy.
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No offence, but the entitlement in this post is exactly what the problem is in SA.

So, if you want shyte for free, do not complain about folks who actually protest for things for free
 
Slootvreter said:
Until it's free, there will always be piracy.
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Not to any particularly meaningful extent. For years already I haven't been able to download the majority of music in my playlists. I know as there were a few occasions I wanted to put music on a flash drive or to burn a disk for someone. Loads and loads of PC games can't be pirated - they simply don't show up in searches.

If someone lacks the resources to purchase content at any price then there isn't a sale to recover from them. But that doesn't describe most people. Sensible distribution and pricing does do wonders. And we don't want piracy to truly disappear anyway, otherwise the incentive for content publishers to provider pro-consumer offerings decreases.
 
LazyLion said:
The best way to fight piracy is through pricing and distribution.
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Personally my 'pirate' activities have dropped to almost zero. This is due to streaming services, namely Netflix and Apple Music. Now I have all the content I want to watch and am able to listen to the tunes when I want. The pricing is affordable (hell cheap even) and the whole family benefits from the subscriptions.
 
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