Movie Piracy in Ethiopian Cinema: Communication Perspective

Ethiopian cinema has experienced a real revolution over the last couple of years. The encouraging turnout for earlier local films has contributed to a large number of filmmakers and business people venturing into the industry. However, this motivation is being cut short due to movie piracy. The pirates and the illegal VCD/DVD venders in Ethiopia seem almost unstoppable. The legal and technological means employed to stop pirates from illegally duplicating the movies are not effective. Even if there are filmmakers? and producers? associations and the legal system trying to protect the copyrights, their effort is not concerted enough even to slow it down. There is huge communication gap among the various partners who are involved in the protection of copyrights. This work is believed to provide firsthand information as to how this communication gap contributed to the situation of movie piracy in Ethiopia and to the struggle emerging filmmakers have had to live with over the years. Finally it attempts to put forward potential ways out by reminding each stakeholder of its responsibilities.