Open letter to Multichoice #1 – The real value of a DStv subscription
Sent to Multichoice MD, Nico Meyer – 6 April 2010.
No reply received at time of writing.
It has culminated here – “Goodbye Multichoice and DSTV, it’s been real
Dear Mr Meyer
Having been a subscriber for many years now, I just wanted to clarify Multichoice’s strange decision regarding copyright with you as I’m sure what I’ve been informed can’t be right.
We had some bad luck with technology earlier this year that resulted in us buying a new LG DVD recorder and a new Multichoice decoder within a couple of weeks of each other, around the end of February. For several weeks things continued normally but then on Saturday 13 March, while trying to record a sports programme (we were having guests over), I received the error “Cannot record. Copy protected”. Since then we have been unable to record any programmes.
I sent a query through to Multichoice that same day. The reply I received more than two weeks later (30 March) was unexpected to say the least, especially as I’m not aware subscribers received any notification at all of the change – we certainly didn’t!
The reply given to me stated that “DStv subscribers do not have access to record, except if they are utilising a PVR decoder. Other than this, recording movies from DStv is illegal.”
Besides the fact that we cannot record anything (not just movies), it is the first I hear that it is illegal to record from television. Growing up, almost everyone I visited had a television and video recorder, and recording programmes to watch at a more convenient time was a common practice.
Please could you satisfy my curiosity and confirm which Act governs this, and why it allows PVR recording but not recording to other media.
The reply goes on to say that “Multichoice recently became aware of this practice and implemented the necessary steps to ensure that it is stopped with immediate effect.”
This really feels like an insult, not just to me but to all your subscribers. After all, it is illegal to shoot people but you can still buy a gun. How is it that Multichoice considers us unable to make a reasonable decision on how to utilise recorded programmes? Instead you have simply removed the option.
I could fully understand if there was the ability to record the programme once only and further copying would be restricted, but from what I see, Multichoice have simply removed any option of recording whatsoever.
Like most people, I am at work all day so I cannot generally watch television during the day. This means if there is something on I want to watch, I would have to record it. And having a family means that most weekends we are busy or out, so often we want to record things to watch then as well.
I have always enjoyed watching NBA games on ESPN as basketball is my favourite sport. When games are shown, they are either in the early hours of the morning or during work hours (except for Saturday afternoons, when the family keeps us occupied too). Now I am unable to watch any NBA basketball as I can’t record it.
Now that our family cannot enjoy many of the programmes we used to, our DStv subscription has lost almost all of its value to us.
If I had known this was going to be forced on me as a subscriber I would not have purchased the new DVD recorder or decoder at the time.
Is this all true? Am I now completely unable to record anything due to Multichoice’s copyright decision? If so, please let me know who I send our letter of cancellation to.
I’m sure that your time is very well spent pursuing growth for Multichoice’s business, but I hope you would agree with me that this is an important matter, and I would appreciate your response.
Yours sincerely,
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