Programme director
Distinguished guest from WIPO Office, Ms Carole Croella
Chair of the Special Committee on Copyrights and Related Rights (SCCR) Information Session
Representative from the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, Ms Alessandra Graziolli
Representative from Nepad’s E-Africa Programme, Dr Edmund Katiti
The Director-General of the Department of Communications, Ms Rosey Sekese
Representatives of the various copyright commissions, regulators and broadcasting organisations from the African continent
Executives of the various local broadcasting organisations
Colleagues from other government departments and state-owned enterprises
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Good morning!
Allow me to, on behalf of the South African government to welcome you to South Africa.
Today, we meet here in South Africa at this important event whose purpose is to raise awareness and share ideas on how to combat broadcast signal piracy. We are humbled by your positive response to our invitation. We are therefore elated that you could join us to discuss the matter that is over a decade old at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)’s table.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Firstly, the seminar further builds on the African Group’s insightful recommendation at the Special Committee on Copyrights and Related Rights (SCCR) 17th session regarding the need to undertake impact studies on this matter has helped in cultivating the understanding of what constitute signal piracy and the circumstances under which it occurs.
This recommendation was pivotal in ensuring that the proposed treaty is consistent with the development agenda, particularly in relation to access to information, education and research. Based on this, the seminar further aims to further increase our understanding of signal piracy by looking at the issue from a largely African perspective with the purpose to measure the degree of its occurrence on the continent and its resultant socio-economic impact.
This understanding will be critical as we prepare for the forthcoming 22nd SCCR session starting on the 15 to 24 June 2011 in Geneva. Secondly, the regional seminar hosted by the government of Nigeria in collaboration with WIPO in Abuja in 2010 which became a major turning point regarding this matter.
I have been reliably informed that based on the discussions in Abuja-Nigeria, consensus began to emerge at the last 21st SCCR session meeting regarding the scope, object and objectives of this treaty. Credit should go to the African group for its immense contribution in the debates. I am quite hopeful that the 22nd SCCR session will make decisive recommendations for consideration by the General Assembly to be held in September 2011.
Ladies and gentlemen!
“Pirates are underserved customers.” Unknown quote. Signal piracy has become a scourge which if not urgently contained, can wipe out our broadcasting and content industries. This means that although this draft treaty is primarily about the protection of broadcasting organisations, its long-term benefits transcend the broadcasting sector as it permeates our socio-cultural and economic lives.
A recent study done for WIPO by Professor Anastassios Pouris and Roula Inglesi-Lots on the Contribution of Copyright and related rights-based industries to the national economies has revealed that in contrast to the developed countries, copyright and related rights-based industry contributes on average 4% to both the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employment. Interestingly, these industries contribute 8% and 4% to overall imports and exports respectively.
Although the study was based on South Africa comparative to other countries, the picture may be the same or even worse in many of the African countries.
The Minister of State Security reported in Parliament on 2 June, that Pirate goods are costing South Africa as much as R178 billion a year. The loss represented about 10% of the country’s gross domestic products (GDP).
Sadly, this scenario prevails in our countries wherein rich content remains untapped. As developing and least developed countries we need to leverage on this treaty as a foundation on which our content industries can be built, protected and nurtured. In this way, we can unlock the local content industries’ potential to increase content diversity and create jobs.
The issue of public access to information as raised consistently by the developing and the least developed countries cannot solely be resolved by this treaty. Neither will the absence of the treaty guarantee public access to information. Instead, the lack of a legal instrument to deal with signal piracy may annihilate our content industries and in the process limit access to diversity of information.
The investigative study by ICS Signal Piracy Investigation define Signal Piracy in this manner “Signal Piracy, also known as signal theft, occurs when a business or individual decodes an encrypted signal without authorization, usually meaning they have not paid for or subscribed to the service. The crime of signal piracy allows businesses, to benefit and profit from paid programming by illegally broadcasting this signal in their business. A business establishment will decode the signal without authorisation and benefit from it by providing the service to their customers”.
There is an agreement amongst developing countries that they have huge challenges relating to access to broadcasting services due to historical legacies. To address these challenges, it is required of us to invest immensely in the broadcasting infrastructure particularly, public broadcasting and free-to-air broadcasting services concomitant to the development agenda. In this way, multiple window opportunities can be made available to showcase out local content, thus overcoming the high importation of content which have effects on our moral tradition and value system.
I am confident the next SCCR session will make a huge progress in expediting its work towards the conclusion of this Treaty for the benefit of our broadcasting and content industries alike. South Africa is fully committed to this process and we are prepared to work with the developing and the least developed countries, particularly the African Group and WIPO in achieving this goal.
I am glad that during the next two days, you will have discussions on the 3 proposals submitted by South Africa, Japan and Canada. Our discussions on the 3 proposals should not be oblivious to the rapid technological developments and convergence. This to ensure that the proposed treaty is not obsolete even before it is ratified. Throughout the world broadcasting systems are being migrated to digital and this process will inevitable affect the form and content of this treaty.
From South Africa’s perspective, we sincerely hope the discussions at this seminar will enrich the draft proposal.
We rely on your support for this proposal as it is in the interest of the developing and the least developed countries. I am glad to see the presence of enforcement agencies, including the police and the broadcasting regulators. It is important that these agencies are part of the discussions to ensure that upon ratification, the treaty can be strongly enforced. Again, their presence further underlines that signal piracy is more than an Intellectual Property matter (IP).
This seminar is an ideal forum for us as African countries to share and learn about each other’s experiences and share strategies on how to curb signal piracy.
We need to think about how we can integrate this matter within the broader African Union forum on ICTs so that this matter can be tackled in a joint effort continentally because signal piracy is increasing at an alarming rate and it is becoming too sophisticated. I wish you well in your deliberations, and looking forward to receive the report of this seminar.
I thank you!
Source: Department of Communications
