Friday, 14th August 2009 - 08:24CET
Authorities 'not doing enough' to fight illegal downloading, pirating
A meeting to discuss pirate products and illegal downloading heard complaints yesterday that the authorities were not doing enough to battle this criminal activity and people who are found guilty time and time again were being let off with just a slap on the wrist.
The meeting, hosted by the GRTU, was addressed by Grace Borg, for Visual and Sound Communications and legal adviser Dr Patrick Galea.
"The law must be enforced and those repeatedly found guilty should have their trading licence revoked," Visual and Sound said in a statement on the meeting.
It was pointed out that the shops which traded in the legal products were slowly but surely finding it harder to keep afloat and would eventually close down, adding to the already high number of unemployed people.
On illegal downloading from the internet, those present said service providers should also play their part to prevent abuse.
"There are loads of things that one may do to block these sites such as protocol and port blocking, bandwidth capping and shaping amongst other things."
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Comments
Protocol and port blocking, bandwidth capping and shaping ?? Yeah, Grace, you really know how to handle competition.
You should be labelled as the next Maltese dictator. Local ISPs wouldn't even DREAM to impose those kinds of sanctions / limits, they will go out of business.
One CANNOT impose how I use the internet, I am PAYING for the thing.
Mr.Hili, obviously, you either own a shop, and are blaming the recession / piracy for your lack of sales due to HIGH PRICES. Secondly, ever heard of x264? I dont need blu-ray for movie enjoyment.
My two cents - 720p & AC3. Can't get better than that
I still buy original CD's and DVD's, but from online websites. What is the use of buying such original CD's and DVD's from shops like Exotique when the prices in Malta are more than 100% higher?
I do not think that piracy is effecting such shops, but their greedy prices! Many online shops have special prices for distributors. If Maltese distributors take advantage of such prices, they can surely meet online prices and for sure will attract more clients.
Check your facts. The "no vat" thing regarding play.com applies only to the UK. In the case of shipping outside the UK, the vat is prepaid by play.com itself.
Moreover, please note that rental shops who rent DVDs that are for private viewing only (not for rental) are themselves pirates.
So anyone renting any of these DVDs, is a pirate.
As to your other comment, that one cannot compare exotique to play due to VAT increments, and that companies like HMV are finding it hard; might be true...however it does not make sense that a videogame that came out in 2002 is still priced at exotique close to its original price (€30), when I can buy this from foreign shops, at a fair price of €6. VAT increment definitly does not make the price go up that high...and this applies to many other products exotique sell.
On a side note, owning a DVD Rental shop comes with the price of actually owning rental licenses of all your films. It might not be illegal downloading, but it is still illegal anyhow...
Blu Ray is just a storage medium. Anything that can be recorded on a Blu Ray disk can be downloaded, recorded on a hard disk or even an SD card. Blu Ray is pretty much obsolete the day it was born. Today even a postage stamp sized micro-sd card can store as much as a Blu ray DVD. True the card is more expensive to produce than a read only DVD but that won;t be for much longer. Besides, the whole idea of buying media with a content will soon be extinct. Slowly but surely media and content are being separated. The only reason Blu Ray made any success at all is simply Sony's mighty marketing machine. That won;t keep it alive for much longer though.
What you say about upgrading from DVD to BLU ray doesn;t make much sense either. Most people nowadays already have an HD capable LCD TV anyway and the ones who don't soon will have anyway when their old tube TV breaks down. It is in fact becoming difficult to buy a TV which isn't HD capable even if you try.
You concluded many things about me without even knowing who I am. You mentioned my uncles, cousins and I don't know who. First of all, your assumptions are not true because I do not do what you mentioned here. I mentioned Play.com because that is where I buy from !!!So please do me a favor and revoke your statement. Secondly, it is none of your business how people watch movies. People pay a monthly fee to an ISP and they can download as much as 50Giga Bytes per month. This is accepted in our country. In fact what was Melita's compensation for their last technical problem ? A FULL month of UNLIMITED downloads. And what should one download to get the 50 Giga Bytes limit ? Newspaper ??? Let us all be realistic. Stick to the point Mr.Hili. You either reduce your prices or close down. Same goes to you Ms.Grace Borg. STOP BRINGING THE DOWNLOADING EXCUSE !!! YOUR PRICES ARE SKY HIGH !!!!
For those who have never used Play.com, I recommend it. Delivery is free and the prices are definitely much much less that what Mr.R.Hili can offer !!!!
I would suggest that you reread the comments you are leaving before answering them, since you first asked me to see the difference between HD and Blu Ray and now telling me that they are the same thing? then what are you really on about?
I am not the one changing any words, what I told you was true and any dvd that has a this is not for rent sign on it, and is actually being rented...that is illegal.
There is no point arguing with someone who has no idea what they are actually saying.
Good day!
Hi sorry for not replying, but as you can see i was bombarded with questions and arguments. Although i am not into the PS industry, but I confirm that i can get them with that price and in some cases even cheaper. Delivery will take about 2 week from release date. Leave your email address and i will contact you.
Take care
First of all Blu Ray Disc are also call HD since they can store high definition movies. The HD discs you are referring to are now history. That was a battle between both of them and the BD won the battle. I am not in the same opinion about Blu Ray. Its true that the swap from dvd to Blu Ray is going to take longer for several reasons. When in 1999 we swaped from VHS to dvd the only capital expence was just the DVD player. With regard to the swap from DVD to Blu Ray one has to invest also in an LCD or Plasma TV. So the capital cost is much bigger to swap from DVD to Blu Ray. The other thing is that we are facing a recession, so people are holding back from making the shift.
With regards to the visit at the my shop, you are free to come at your convenience and try to find any ILLEGAL COPIES of DVDs at my shop.
Here we are talking of illegal copy...those you download and put them on a blank dvd. Dont try to change words now
I'm still waiting an answer from you if you can supply me with PS3 games @ Eur 52 on release date!
Thank you
If your think that exotique.com has better prices than other websites which are available, I challenge you to compare ANY 3 products from that website to the following: http://www.play.com http://www.amazon.com http://www.ebay.co.uk
So first it was VHS then SVHS then VCD then SVCD then DVD then BLU-Ray then what?... I just can't be bothered buying stuff that becomes obsolete in a couple of years... It's a lot of wasted money! What about all those EXPENSIVE VHS Original Cassettes that we bought in the 80's? and all the DVDs in the 90's....It's all money down the gutter!
BUT NOT ANYMORE!! Today we get soft copies of everything!
As we speak, there already exist half a dozen sources for purchasing and downloading 1080p movies online. AT GREAT PRICES! Why should anyone bother filling his shelves with expensive, space consuming BLU-Ray disks AGAIN???... NAAA....Forget it! I'm done with physical media!
For the time being most online sources only provide 720p, but this will change eventually. It's just a matter of time. And even 720p footage is VERY good quality so there is not much advantage in moving to 1080p anyway.
The bottom line is that I'm done with physical media of ANY type... FOREVER and so is a vast proportion of the music and video savvy population.
Are you referring to Legal online purchased downloads or Illegal downloads Mr. Hili? At this day and age you cannot continue to address your potential clients with statements like this one. You are treating a potential client like an idiot, people are not that stupid you know...and it is of no use addressing people with 'my friends' it just makes it a whole lot worse.
@C.Zammit
Mr.Zammit when you want to visit my shop you are more than welcome. I will give 50Eur for every illegal dvd you find. If you don't find anything ....just give me 50euros. Deal or no Deal!!! They if you say that HD downloads are as good as BLU-RAY.....I think you just have 22" LCD. Watch it on a 42" and tell me what you think.
@A.Cortis
Downloading without paying is ILLEGAL. You are watching too much illegal movies. I recomend you watch a dvd and read the first notice. If you buy or watch in a legal way. YES i have nothing again this kind of competition but i think you are one that want everything for FREE and then you give them to your friends, uncles, aunties, cousins..Where is fair competition?.....Xejn ma hu b'xejn
@R Hili
I can assure you that these days quality is eccelent. You can even find bluray rips 1080p that are nearly the same quality as originals.
In the meantime what should concern you as a successful businesswoman is that most young, and maybe not so young, Maltese consumers with access to the internet will divert their custom to online services like play.com and else. We have the benefit of pre-ordering and ordering albums straight from our houses and getting them straight to our houses. All this is done from the commodity of our rooms and computers and at a cheaper price. Thinking that fighting any illegality will change your business performance is wrong thinking.
One had to go to local outlets and be charged prices which are ridiculous when compared to what one can get online. Let us not talk about the selection of music involved, at best pathetic and restricted to relatively few artists en vogue with the general public. Someone with a special taste in particular genres can forget any outlets in these islands.
By the way, capping our bandwidths to safeguard your trade is preposterously hitting out at our legitimate services and the business activities of other companies in other sectors. Just shut up, will you!
I buy from Play.com, Amazon.com. They have very good prices for brand new DVDs and CDs. For those who want, they have also used products at very good price. Also eBay.co.uk has some very good deals.
Books/Magazines
I also buy these from Play.com and Amazon.com, but you could find some very good books in awesomebooks.co.uk, abebooks.co.uk, iBiblion.com and much much more.
And I buy a lot from electronic stores abroad when I am travelling, they are indeed much cheaper than online because you save postage too.
PEOPLE OF MALTA, please buy from these online shops and you find yourself saving much much more than buying from OUR local shops. They never learn - for example check how much some disGRACEful shops are selling a game called Assassin's Creed 2(38.99 Euro) - I have already ordered my brand new game for 26.99USD,(equivalent to19Euro) delivered from an internet site. That is already a saving of almost 20Euro, halfprice. What a disgrace!
So, please let us fight piracy and highway robbery.
I agree that pirating is wrong and harmful to the industry...
..but what is more harmful and damaging to this same industry is the exorbitant prices you insist on charging us, the poor consumer, for entertainment. 2009 and a cd at an average price of between 15 - 20 euros is hilarious if you expect business.. especially when foreign websites sell the same product (if not with special offers and editions) at a quarter (or sometimes even less) of the price! Dear Grace, rethink your business model. I pity the fool who still purchases from your outlets.. I certainly haven't.. for years now.. and never will.
and that's just the DVD and CD media.
Has anyone looked at the stupid electronics prices?
An outdated HD-DVD add-on to the Microsoft Xbox (please note, HD DVD is off the market and unusable today) is STILL sold at over 100 euros today - when Amazon got rid of the last of its stock at 10 euros since it is old technology today. Unbelievable! I pity the poor person who thinks it's a good deal and buys it...
"Musicians including Robbie Williams, Annie Lennox, Billy Bragg, Blur's David Rowntree and Radiohead's Ed O'Brien said last night that the public should not be prosecuted for downloading illegal music from the internet.
The Featured Artists Coalition, which consists of 140 of Britain's biggest rock and pop stars, said at its inaugural meeting that companies such as MySpace and YouTube should be required to remunerate the artists when they use their music for advertising.
Bragg told The Independent that most of the artists had voted against supporting any move towards criminally prosecuting ordinary members of the public for illegally downloaded music.
"Artists should own their own rights and they should decide when their music should be used for free, or when they should have payment."
source: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/its-not-a-crime-to-download-say-musicians-1643217.html
The solutions Grace Borg etc are providing reflect that they don't have a clue about business and the music world!!!
Many wanted globalisation and all that business...have it! In the meantime, guys, enjoy downloading from Virgin, HMV, Amazon...!
Try this one for size if you like independent movies and not the usual Hollywood fluff: http://www.openfilm.com/
It is more than legal - the producers encourage us to use this site. But as I said don't expect to see 'romantic comedies' starring Jennifer Lopez. Expect instead interesting and very often thought provoking stuff. I wonder if Grace Borg caters for the tastes of the thinking minority by renting out for free or at a nominal price such movies.
It's the new world order.... Deal with it!
CDs, DVDs, Cassettes, LPs, Blue-Ray.... All these and all other physical media for distributing Music or Film or Game are TODAY OBSOLETE... Local business should change its line of business before it's too late!
I haven’t bought a single DVD/CD from Malta for 12 years!
Anyone can download anything s/he likes at a 10th of YOUR cost from LEGAL online suppliers that compete on a global scale and not on the tragically insignificant Valletta mall!
Should any ISP dare block its subscribers' right to purchase anything online... That ISP will VERY quickly loose ALL its clients and will go bankrupt in an eyeblink!
Port blocking and protocol filtering is TOTALLY unacceptable (as well as useless). There are a dozen+ ways of circumventing such measures!!
At the same time there are a thousand LEGAL ways of using those SAME ports and protocols... Why should anyone pay for a service to then find that half of it is blocked?
During your meeting it was said that, and I quote "There are loads of things that one may do to block these sites such as protocol and port blocking, bandwidth capping and shaping amongst other things". May I let you know that THIS IS ILLEGAL, and not downloading !!! Can you be more arrogant than this !!!! Recommend ILLEGAL actions to the ISPs so that you survive !!! Now I call them myself, "WHERE ARE THE AUTHORITIES TO TAKE ACTION AGAINST THIS PUBLIC STATEMENT ????" There was only one country in the world that tried to censor the Internet, and IT FAILED. It was the communist CHINA dear Vince Farrugia / Grace Borg !!!!
It's nice to see that you are trying to save what's left of that dignity by saying that with all that expensive surround sound and movie players, that download qualities are crap. But in case you haven't seen the latest statistics in downloads, it shows that anyone is willing to wait a while for a great quality and sound movie before downloading. So the crap version you think people are watching are most probably the only ones you seem to be providing them. As for downloads, I can assure you they are of the best quality possible! And thank you, I am and will be enjoying my movies, and tv shows!
Downloading from the internet for one's personal use IS NOT illegal in our country. Don't hide behind the copyright excuse. How many of us were at the university library and took a photocopy from a book ? Did we contact the author before ? Did we breach any copyright as well ? NO !!! We're in the EU dear business men / women. Many maltese factories couldn't compete and had to close down. If you cannot compete with online shops, like play.com, do us all a favor and close down, and don't try to hide behind the excuse of law infringement !!! Why don't you say that any digital media is around 50 to 75% more expensive in our country ??
@Mr.Hili
You said that the Blue Ray quality we find in your shops is BY FAR better than the quality of the movies people download from the internet. Then let the people decide by themselves whether it is worth spending all that money in your shop rather than downloading the movie from the internet !!!
Can Grace Borg, the GRTU or whoever suggested that explain how protocol and port blocking and the other things will distinguish between legal and illegal downloads?
Perhaps the same principles can be used to prevent illegal importation of drugs, armaments and other things. All we need to do is limit the number of people that can enter Malta through the air port and sea ports, or perhaps block them altogether. We could limit the size and number of ships that are allowed to enter our ports. We could also prevent people from going out of their houses thereby greatly reducing the possibility of them committing a crime.
learn to keep up with the times - i'm so sorry but as all entrepreneurs say, change and move on immediately.
Even though - i really do not like your attitude on TV, Grace, I will still help you!!
The music industry has changed over the past years and nowadays, the CD is not the core of their sales anymore. I can download all my favourite music from the internet. So, they have two options.
1. they can cry and try to control what is happening - like you Mrs Borg.
2. Or they can change their strategy.
many musicians have changed their strategy by making money from concerts, paraphernalia, fashions chains and stores etc etc basically they are expanding and using spin offs or augmented products to generate sales..
Cd' s are great for the few people that still buy them (and i know quite a few people), but I believe MS Borg, that you need to broaden product/s and generate interest from other things.
Think i'll go listen to some FREE music on Youtube now :)
Re DVD's - I was never really into movies anyway.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Like there isn't enough of that already!!
It's the 21 Century and Malta's internet services are still well below par when you consider the cost, connection speed, limitations (Port blocking, bandwidth caps, etc...), and customer service.
Yes, stop piracy (Or get suppliers to charge realistic prices)! But for goodness sakes, don’t mess up my internet any more than it already is!!!
Like many, I prefer to purchase CDs and DVDs from internet sites like Play.com and Ebay.co.uk, becauses prices are much cheaper (plus free delivery).
Please mate, do me a favor. If you offer me PS3 games @ EUR 52 from your shop and I can pick them up on release date, PLEASE CONTACT ME!!! I will be the first person to come at your shop and buy it from you!
I'm telling you this since you claimed that your items are priced like on the internet stores.
btw... I'm very serious about my comment. Do contact me if you have PS3 games @ EUR 52 on release date.
Thanks
No Mr. Vella what you are doing is NOT illegal. You are buying the product. I am not at all against this type of competition. Secondly $0.99 makes about 0.70c Euros and not 20c as you said.
@Adrian Cachia
I totally agree with you. Mr.Cachia although I am not breaching any local laws. I used to buy such dvd's from the UK and which cost me about Lm28 each. With this situation i can only afford to buy 8 to 10 dvds a month in peek season. Who brought us in this situation? When i started to rent dvd in 2000 i used to buy such dvds but there were no internet downloads. So if you are one who download movies illegally you are one to blame.
TO ALL MOVIE LOVERS
It look here that we have a bunch on unprofessional movie lovers......or a bunch of professional movie hackers. Come on put your hands in your pocket and go and buy a Blu Ray player, a big LCD and a nice surround sound ....and feel the difference. Downloads are crap my friends and ruin you eyes!! Enjoy watching a movie.
Go on lady cap my bandwidth and download limit I dare you.
Remember that many but many, extremely popular films and TV programs are supplied for free by the producers themselves over the internet. Check out www.southparkstudios.com all you South Park fans out there and forget about buying the DVDs at exorbitant prices. The downloads are more than legal - they are encouraged by the producers! And I am talking of just one immensely popular TV series... there are hundreds or thousands out there.
The moment you make a copy of a DVD or CD with copyrighted material YOU ARE INFRINGING THE LAW. In fact if any of you have ever watched a movie on DVD you should pause the initial screen. You are liable even if no profit is involved.
Also Ms.Grace Borg, why do you want to restrict a country from getting easy access to music & movies? Your shops are WAY too greedy ... you must have very greedy suppliers. Must be cheaper if you strike a deal with play.com ... they have deals on there where for less than 7 euros they send you the DVD home ... From overseas ... hmmm ... what would YOU offer for 7 euros or less? Let me guess ... the same thing one finds from the market stalls huh?
Compete ... or loose out ... but don't try to control cause you will fail - miserably.
You are right in that there were some countries who were eavesdropping on their citizens but the eu petty dictators them ordered that such eavesdropping be made in all the member countries. Originally it was meant to be for a longer time but protests forced th limit to be two years.
As for having my communications monitored even though I am not doing anything illegal means that I and the rest of the citizens are considered as suspect criminals. This is the continental inquisitorial system where you are considered guilty until you prove yourself innocent as contrasted with the system in Malta and also in the UK where you are considered innocent until the prosecution proves you guilty. Now all Maltese citizens are considered as suspect criminals on orders by the eu.
You own a shop tell me where it is so for sure i will not come there. before you speak learn mate if a film is encoded in blu ray it will give the same quality and besides the human eye nor the ear will ever learn the difference on screens if the screen it self is not for blu ray or hd or the sound is in HD.
Said that if i send you a picture of me that means that from my side i am uploading and that from your side you are downloading so that is illegal?
However there are films and music which you can legally download without paying a cent. Here are some examples:
http://www.thehuntforgollum.com/ - this site is a free film linked with the Lord of the Rings story.
http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/ - this film is an animated cartoon - also free.
http://www.elephantsdream.org/ - another free animated cartoon film.
These are three films offered for free by their creators, and there are many others. The selection of free music is vastly bigger.
So, if the owners are willing to give these for free, and we want to receive them, who are you to say we can't - or that ISPs should stop us?
How about complaining with companies like Play.com as well, because they are selling dvds, games,cds,etc which are very very much cheaper than in Malta.
If you like to improve your business, try to sell these items at a cheaper price like those in eu countries and not insist with the local government to make us like a comunist country.
And if you brought this point out because of some maket hawkers you should have brought this thing to the attent of the GRTU, which takes care of small business in Malta
"You are right. The eu petty dictators are so afraid of the people rising up against the eu and organizing themselves through the modern means of communication that they ordered the monitoring of all data, internet, faxes, e-mails, sms, mobiles, you name it with the data to be kept, if I remember correctly, for at least 2 years."
Um, no, you've got it completely wrong. Individual countries already started implementing such legislation. What the EU has done is regulate it, and set a MAXIMUM time (I believe two years) that this data can be kept, and what data may be kept. The EU did exactly the opposite from what you claim it did, although this is often misunderstood.
Having said that, this monitoring (also of phone calls) is already taking place. If anybody has problems with that, well, don't do anything illegal.
Malta is too expensive. I prefer asking my relatives abroad to buy for me books, gadgets music etc.
I urge Melita to dare to monitor our activities, then it would be in breach of privacy and data protection
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article3353387.ece
I said DOWNLOADING is Illegal not buying. If you buy from the internet it fine. I have nothing against buying from internet. I think my prices are as low as the internet so i have nothing to worry. But Yes downloading is unfair competition......an one other thing...if you are happy with the quality of the download.....i am sorry...YOU ARE NOT A MOVIE FAN. Can you compare the quality of your downloads with a BLU-RAY disk....? NO WAY
My Friends you don't know what you are saying. If you download copyright protected material. YES its a crime and you are breaching the Law. The same thing applies to card sharing. Kun infurmat....u saqsi!!!
How about not ripping off people like suppliers have been doing for years?
Most people now order from the internet because even when paying for postage etc everything still come much cheaper than if you buy it from Malta.
Control the internet? That will be the day Ms Borg.
Peter Korsten
You are right. The eu petty dictators are so afraid of the people rising up against the eu and organizing themselves through the modern means of communication that they ordered the monitoring of all data, internet, faxes, e-mails, sms, mobiles, you name it with the data to be kept, if I remember correctly, for at least 2 years.
R.hili
You are wrong hili. Not all downloads are illegal. Get your act right and start competing. Unfair competition hili? We are one whole eu market now and can buy from wherever we want or have you forgotten that hili?
I've got the honor to say it's a decade since I've bought any item from exotique. Exotique may shut down. The Internet is much cheaper, all I have to do is some clicks and receive the parcel at home :). The salaries are one third of those in EU countries whereas prices are sky high.
Think about competitiveness grace....... Nowadays the world is small....even your electronics stuff.....too expensive...who's gonna buy a netbook from exotique....??!! If I had to buy electronics stuff I would prefer an electronics store(better price and better service).
And as many said below......internet cannot be limited for just for your personal interest. After all, your main interest is not to defend copyright, but to defend your profits. But Maltese are becoming wiser as time goes by,....and won't be cheated.
Internet downloads are not "all illegal" as you say. In fact, even filesharing (what most people and Mrs Borg herself call "illegal downloads") is perfectly legal in Malta and in most countries. The only thing that is illegal is the selling of pirated copies.
In full agreement re fact that environmental and other factors are pushing away from packaged material, to the disppointment of many purists!
However, it's not the packaging or the CD material that affects the high prices - it's the rights. And most of these go to the recording companies/record labels!
Furthermore, I found this Quote: "The turmoil in the industry has changed the balance between artists, record companies, promoters, retail music stores and the consumer. The leading music retailers are now box stores (Wal-Mart and Best Buy) and music-only stores are no longer a player in the industry. Recording artists now rely on live performance and merchandise for the majority of their income, which in turn has made them more dependent on music promoters"
Have a peek at the web and see how it all works....
The only thing certain people are worried about is a loss of their fat profits because they sell stuff so much more expensive than anywhere else in europe .
In the end of the day they can never win . Ever heard of satellite internet ? Very fast , relativley cheap and all you need is a satellite dish and pc card ... So if ISP's limit or whatever then they will suffer and the job losses will be much bigger because i will make sure that everyone knows about satellite internet .
GOD FORBID that your will is granted.
but,,,,, is it really possible that a few people want this type of muzzling to occur??
Further reasons fuelling this natural death are the cost of plastic and paper manufacture in terms of carbon footprint and energy saving, which are the top priority issues in the most of the world's portfolio nowadays.
Dear Mrs. Borg, I suggest you start revising your business plan from now. The world will not wait for you.
For your information, downloading - even peer-to-peer - is used for legal purposes too. You can download the complete Ubuntu Linux distribution via bittorrent, and that's a free product - in fact Ubuntu themselves offer the torrent files. Or how about the film "The Hunt for Gollum"? That film was offered free by its creators. If anything it proves what one can do with enough enthusiasm.
I have shelves at home packed with original DVDs, CDs and LPs. The last I bought was the complete set of Monty Python DVDs - from eBay. And guess what - I HAVE downloaded much of the music that I have on LPs for the convenience of playing them on an MP3 player. I hope Ms. Borg was not suggesting that I should pay for them all over again, was she?
Want to stop piracy? Make YOUR product affordable.
One other thing....Melita Cable pressed the Authorities to prosecute people who make use of card sharing (dreambox) which is also illegal and the Authorities do prosecuted some people. Why do Melita Cable now monitors and prosecute those people who are making illegal dowloads and give that information to the police as it did with the dreambox users. Why are the Authorities not doing nothing about this?
Not only in Malta, but worldwide.
The future is buying and paying for downloaded music, films, games etc., legally from the internet, at a fraction of the cost. It already started and there is no stopping.
Just imagine the savings on manufacturing, distribution and other overheads.
"There are loads of things that one may do to block these sites such as protocol and port blocking, bandwidth capping and shaping amongst other things."
ISP's are charging as much as euro100 monthly for us to have a super fast connection plus unlimited downloads. We normal people will not need such a service if we are going to have our internet cencored and blocked ports so then ISP's will loose money as will then turn to a basic package if we are just going to download emails and surf the net, or at least a middle one to see videos on you tube?????
Grace Borg i promise you as a person who loves movies, music and playstation games. As long as your prices remain double then what i get from play and ebay for the same original products including their shipping!!!!!! i will not buy from your store ever!!!
As for bandwidth capping, all those millions invested in fiber optic communications only to then cap the bandwidth.
It would be interesting to see which of the Internet Service Providers would be to first to implement such measures.....
Where they find these "ideas" I haven't got a clue!!
While I agree that commercial copyrighted material must be purchased in a regular way, I have to point out, that not all people use the same operating system, and this, even in tiny Malta. The law must respect the right of every individual to the freedom of software choice.
To make it clear, not all people use Windows, there are Macs, BSDs, many Linux distributions, Open Solaris, etc. So, let us not be short sighted.
I admire your business acumen but you've got to understand that CD's priced higher than HMV in Oxford Street don't expect to sell.
Many ppl only downlaod to see what the CD sounds like, as buing a CD for €20 and finding it's crap could be very disappointing. Proper collectors like myself end up buying the original just the same.
There is no way that these USSR/Cuba style of tactics being proposed can be accetped, I'm sorry.
As to the recording companies in general - who've made millions upon millions - if they want to combat the so-called illegal piracy (theirs is legal!!! daylight robbery) then they should better revise the pricing policy.
I've spent thouands of the old Liri to make up my collection of LP's and CD's, but nowadays prices are getting rediculous. Last time I spent €23 for a CD, just 'cos it was hot from the press. Now I choose to wait instead until the price falls.
I haven't been to a local music shop for ages, so, Mrs Borg, if you want to sell, just read what's written on the wall.
...and the same goes for PC/PS games.
In suggest you change your business model completely.
You should team up with the rest of the local industry, close your old style shops, move all your activities online and then open up a small place in a popular location (e.g baystreet or republic street) when non internet savvy people can drop in and order.
Your current employment rate would then be bolstered if you pass on the savings from this new business model off to the consumers, who will obviously buy more from you and thus needing to support the business.
Win Win situation if you open your eyes. For a few euros and good service, Maltese WILL come to buy from your site! And if you're smart enough, maybe even start selling abroad!
Not to mention I am paying for additional bandwith and now you want to cap it? mhux ekk nibqu..
As said below give me 1 reason why I should buy my PC games locally when I can buy them cheaper (including delivery).
People are no longer stupid.. Unless the local retailer starts competing genuinely with their prices people will keep on doing what they always did, ie looking for cheaper ways how to buy their products..
Look at how much internet buying increased over the years... why???? because people are fed up of being ripped off by a too eager local entrepreneur wanting to become rich over night...
First of all if somebody buys pirated CDs doesnt mean he doesnt buy original ones! Personally i have my own ORIGINAL movie collection, however I never just buy an original DVD. Obviously the first thing i do is download it from the internet, watch it, then if i LOVE it I add it to my original DVD collection by buying it from the INTERNET, if i dont like it i throw it in the recycle bin.
and about controlling protocol, why don't we name our country ChinIranian Islands?
If maltese dont feel like buying an original disc, they wont, get over it. We'd rather rent it and copy it ourselves (oooppps hope my protocol isnt monitored!)
Apart from that one has to note that these suppliers, due to their EXPENSIVE selling prices, are making consumers more and more open minded to go and buy online which thus be much cheaper. Therefore are the authorities going to try and restrict us also from using these sites now too?
The solution is ONE - Get COMPETITIVE and not controlling the consumers since you cannot manage to control your own company expenses. Times Changed since the opening of these shops and now is the time to change your way of trading too.
The consumers would NEVER be restricted from buying from whoever they want.
What does she expect that we continue to pay ridiculously high prices when we can get them loads cheaper? Not only music, games and movies but practically everything! Even books,clothes and even cars.You don't have to be a genius to realize that customers are being ripped off in practically every sector. I expect profit to be done but there is "profit" and PROFIT.
All the people that like me have bought a PlayStation 3 HAVE to buy orginal games only since unlike other consoles it cannot be chipped - hence allowing pirated games to be played on it. However I buy my games online from PLAY.com because while you sell games @ EUR 70, I can get them for EUR 52 & FREE SHIPPING. See the difference? We buy from the internet.
I know that you need to pay electricity bills and staff and ground rent, but that is not my problem. All we are asking for is prices similar to the ones we buy from abroad. At the end of the day, you will sell much more.
PS: this is not a problem of Ms. Borg only, all the outlets in Malta that sell PS3 games are on the same price lines.
To start solving the problem, we should start by tackling downloading for commercial purposes. The only way to tackle this is through police acting undercover as if they were a normal customer. MOST DVD shops copy DVDs and games if you ask them to and the Valletta malls you will even find stands displaying such copies!
Why don't the police act undercover to crack down on these first?
What is illegal about that?
How about asking ISPs to block sites like Play.com or amazon since these offer a much cheaper product and better availability and service to your shops?
Grace and other's like her should open an intranet offer slashed digital media for Malta like a local iTunes and maybe they do some money from there .
People DO buy Originals...
Play.com, Amazon.com, Ebay.co.uk, BlahDVD.com...... nobody cares about Exotique sorry darling.
Blocking by port number? Change the port number. Block by protocol? Encrypt the data. And you can't tell from the port number or the protocol whether the contents infringe any copyrights anyway.
Bandwidth capping? Hey, I'm paying for that bandwidth!
The truth is that selling music and films on physical media is a dead-end street, for a variety of reasons, of which illegal downloading is only one. Why bother buying a CD, if I'm only going to play the music on my MP3 player anyway? It's easier to download, legally or illegally, and in Malta you can't download legally easily if at all, plus youngsters simply don't want to pay for it.
Sure, it's illegal and killing off an entire industry, but retailers should think about their business model instead of wanting to have the state take care of something that is, in my opinion, irreversible.
Bought a new Nintendo DS with a free game included from an internet site for the price of 109 euros including delivery charges to Malta. Same gadget from Malta is around 180 euros and without game. An official genuine PSP game averages 15 to 20 euros from internet sites including postage to Malta, same games in Malta around 30 – 39 Euros.
New Digital camera with an 8GB card bought it for 198 euros from Ebay, from Malta 310 euros & no card.
I agree with you to ask authorities to enforce the law against pirated or illegal software but as customer I also ask authorities to watch against price abuse by dealers of electronic goods.
However cracking down on illegal downloading and or pirating will not increase the sales for legitimate traders by even one jot - the "legal" goods are just too (rip off) expensive for most to buy, there is not enough money around and people will just go without.
On anther note traders dealing in legal copies should be kept an eye on them so there prices would be fair not sky high. Otherwise the problem will still persist besides is cheaper buying off the net then going to a local store.
ISP all ready are keeping and eye with some of them have ports closed or capped what you pretend more that we pay for each single download? in that case i would rather stop the service or just get everything from the net but for sure when you consider local prices it's not worthed buying from Malta.
I got several dvd's from a store in the center of London believe it or not are pretty cheaper then going to Valletta or to sliema to buy them.
People prefer ordering original products from online internet sites as it is MUCH cheaper than buying from your outlets. If these products are reduced in price then maybe, just maybe, people will start buying from your outlets. Remember though if this is not done fast enough, people will get used to ordering from the internet and then it will be too late.
Regarding blocking sites and ports, are you suggesting to make our internet usage controlled like China? That would really be against the internet users rights.
and now,,,,, after havin their hefty incomes reduced,,,,,, they are feelin the pinch apparently :))
they want us to start feedin their habits and vices again.... NOOOOO way mate!!