Multichoice decries widespread content piracy on its products

By Steve UMIDHA

Every year, the government loses an estimated Sh17 billion in potential revenue, in form of Value Added Tax, Corporation Tax, and income tax from both residents and non-residents.

Entertainment and pay – tv provider, Multichoice Group is unhappy about content piracy of its products in the country, accusing local businesses of ripping off the firm’s revenues. However, the widespread issue is not so simple as it appears.

“This is not a Kenyan issue, it is a complex matter but we are working with relevant State enforcing agencies to help address the vice,” offered Nzola Miranda, the Managing Director of MultiChoice Kenya, saying the company was losing unquantifiable amounts in terms of revenue leaks from duplicitous links that provide exclusive contents.

The source links to the pirated content – which is simply streaming content without authorization from its legal owner, are mostly originating from foreign IP addresses and split locally and freely provided the user has a stable internet connection.

“It is our biggest threat so far, and a chuck percentage of our stream services is impacted as a result. It is a growing menace. We shut down hundreds of links.

On weekends with English Premier League matches we shut down links of illegal piracy. You will be very shocked at what that translates to. The size is enormous,” he said.

An IP address is a numeric label assigned to devices that use the internet to communicate. Computers that communicate over the internet or via local networks share information to a specific location known as IP addresses.

Typically, hackers are known to use scythed IP addresses for illegal activities they don’t want traced back to them.

Firms like Multichoice are now crying foul, and are worried that the continued widespread growth of the vice, if not speedily addressed, risks eroding the country’s creative and cultural ecosystems, sports and live performances sectors depriving workers and industries hundreds and billions of shillings in annual revenues.

Pirate streams of sporting events – particularly live sports events and TV – programming Series, are not difficult to find on the internet and shutting these down has proved to be an impossible task for sports leagues.

While legal action has been successfully brought against several illegal streamers, many are still fully operational. “When one stream gets taken down, more pop up in its place,” says MultiChoice Kenya Communications and PR manager Elisha Kamau.

Experts cite that, for instance, piracy deprives music industry of Sh15 billion and TV stations Sh8 billion yearly and are now calling on the government to tighten law to curb digital piracy.

“There is a need to minimize the loopholes exploited by perpetrators of digital piracy, which currently deny artists their livelihood and deprive the government of revenue.

Current provisions in the Kenya Cyber Crime Act, for instance, do not specifically mandate Internet Backbone Providers (IBPs) to take active measures in preventing access to infringing and inappropriate domains,” notes Leonard Aguta, Head of Operations Support at MultiChoice Kenya.

Indeed, the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KiPPRA), in its Policy Brief, pointed out shortcomings in the existing copyright laws, noting that they lack clear guidelines that protect film producers against digital piracy.

“Strengthen the institutional capacity of the Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) to be able to harmonize licensing of films at the national and county levels. This will limit the hurdles film producers experience at every licensing stage,” cautions KiPPRA.