Video service providers keen to make pirates walk the plank

VIDEO on demand (VOD) service providers like Showmax and satellite television MultiChoice, which owns DStv, are taking the fight to the pirates.

In the wake of piracy websites improving their features, illegally accessing copyrighted content has become easier.

The Pirate Bay, one of the most popular piracy websites in the world, recently added Torrents- Time functionality for its users to stream movies and television series from its website. Torrents Time is a new browser plug- in that makes it possible for Mac and Windows users to watch torrent files, often pirated, on their computers without downloading a separate programme.

Kickass Torrents and other web portals best known for online piracy have also adopted the new plug-in.

MultiChoice and VOD service providers have employed a number of strategies to combat piracy, including pricing structures, hiring people to monitor illegal activities online and working with police to enforce legislature on piracy.

MultiChoice said it had a relatively small dedicated cyber piracy team, working with other national structures.

It was headed by a cyber piracy investigator whose job included profiling South Africans who illegally downloaded video content, said MultiChoice spokeswoman Marietjie Groenewald.

The investigator monitored local and international torrent sites, streaming sites and any free or paid video distribution site. Based at its MultiChoice Randburg offices, the investigator also controlled streaming of MultiChoice and international content, identifying server locations.

MyBroadband’s 2016 South African Online Piracy Survey, completed by about 2 400 IT pro- fessionals and tech- savvy South African broadband users, found 65 percent of respondents had pirated content online over the past year.

Corne Guldenpfennig, former head of the South African Federation against Copyright Theft, said South Africa was ranked 14th in the world for illegal downloads in 2014.

South Africans pirated about a million movies and TV series through online downloads every month.