Is MWeb promoting piracy?

A few months ago, SA's Internet landscape was changed forever, with the introduction of the first uncapped broadband offering in the country.

The first to bring this amazing product to us was MWeb, which is now being hailed as the hero of the industry and its consumers. MWeb was followed by a healthy stream of competitors, but will always be remembered for introducing us to the miracle of uncapped.

For years, as South Africans, we have counted every penny we pay towards Internet access and, in the not so distant past, I was scrambling to all-night petrol stations to top up on bandwidth to complete the final boss in the latest World of Warcraft dungeon.

There is no doubt that what MWeb started has become a wonder of access for many South Africans, and it is expected to drive more competition and better prices to the lower income earners in SA.

However, despite its knightly status, I really think MWeb's television advert promoting its “Free the Web” campaign has not been well thought out.

The advert starts with a guy in the grocery store, speaking to himself in a giant mech suit reminiscent of SA's hottest sci-fi movie, District 9. While the advert begins with a cool concept, it gets hairy when the two start up a conversation next to the veggie counter.

The discussion begins with the mech version of the guy, and runs along the lines of: “One minute you are downloading movies and the next you are MIA!” The response to which is: “I know it's going to sound lame, but I hit my Internet cap.”

I won't go into the rest of the details of the advert, but if you want to see the whole thing, it's available here. Suffice to say that I am completely surprised the advertising agency actually let this particular ad on air.

More telling is that there is now a new advert, which does not include serious references to the promotion of piracy.

While I am not judge or jury on how people get their movies, it seems a little irresponsible for a company's advert to promote the theft of other people's intellectual property. While the advert doesn't say the guy was downloading pirated movies, there is little to say he was planning to get them legitimately.

It seems a little irresponsible for a company's advert to promote the theft of other people's intellectual property.

Candice Jones, telecoms editor, ITWeb

I understand that MWeb is looking to promote the new uncapped service, and it is possible that the download of movies and series illustrates part of what you can do with an uncapped account. But clearly the agency that created this advert did not do its homework on this one.

Having said that, it is not particularly clear how much Hollywood's deep pockets lose to the piracy of films in any given year. The last figures released were in 2006 and that was not a particularly reliable number.

But it is certain that buying a new DVD can cost a fortune, a price hike likely driven by the losses Hollywood bosses take from the hit of piracy.

It would all be good, if only they relooked the model they are using. Some production companies are really getting it right, while others are drowning in the immediate access space of the Internet.

Take the American version of Idol, currently being screened on DStv. The producers are selling each performance on iTunes, and making a small fortune from the very legal downloads that people have access to.

However, the day after my favourite show, House, airs on American TV, I still can't buy a particular episode, unless I buy the whole lot. The full season pack only releases once the show has been fully aired in the States.

MWeb has done one other thing right though, and I think this may be where the advert stems from, and that is its deal with DStv On Demand. Many MWeb customers would like access to cool series and will be able to download them as DStv gets the demand side online.

And while MWeb could not reveal the details of the DStv deal when its Free the Web campaign started, I believe the movie download advert should have and possibly could have made reference to the video on-demand offering. Without it, it gets taken out of context.

It will be interesting to see if MWeb continues to use this particular advert in the rest of its campaign.