The Department of Justice in South Africa has agreed to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Partners Against Piracy.
It follows a meeting of the organisation held at MultiChoice’s offices in Johannesburg.
The MoU is aimed at establishing a partnership for capacity building, benchmarking and experience sharing, intellectual property rights protection, training, and skills development within appropriate legal frameworks.
PAP is of the opinion that once the MoU is signed, it will also strengthen future co-operation between PAP and the South African Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DOJ&CD) in combating broadcasting piracy.
“Today marks another milestone in the Government’s efforts to fight broadcast and content piracy, which continue to drain the fiscus of billions of rands a year. Committing to signing this MoU shows our commitment to protect our creative industry so it can grow and attract investment – something that cannot happen without the Government’s intervention,” said Advocate Doctor Mashabane, Director General of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DOJ&CD).
Since 2020, the South African Cybercrimes Act has permitted through harsher sentences on content pirates.
PAP was launched in 2018 in several African countries, including Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania and Angola, and was launched in South Africa in 2022.
“As MultiChoice evolves from a traditional video entertainment business into a diversified platform business focused on technology, we are committed to promoting legitimate content consumption and supporting the creative industry. We look forward to strengthening partnerships with a number of stakeholders, including the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, to wage a coordinated war against piracy,” said Marc Jury, CEO, MultiChoice South Africa.
MultiChoice’s sister company Irdeto has been working on efforts to combat piracy, leading to the 2022 convictions of two pirates who were arrested for the selling of Android TV Boxes and IPTV subscriptions.
