Piracy

In Line with the World Anti-Counterfeiting day, I am dedicating this blog to the anti piracy campaign of our government. All my posts here in my blog are about corruption and you might wonder why I am blogging about piracy. Well, there is corruption involved in piracy! And that’s what I would include in today’s blog along with my opinion on the piracy issue. What is the role of corruption in the piracy business? Easy! Let me explain briefly. In order to get a pirated product, let’s say a DVD movie for example, a person must bribe or use illegal means to get a soft copy of the movie. The usual means is to bribe a person working on that production to get a soft copy which will then be sold to mass pirating “companies” to be sold to the markets or be uploaded the internet so that people can access it and download it via torrent or streaming websites. In the news today, there were pirated goods that are estimated to be worth P350 million were confiscated and destroyed at the Camp Crame Grandstand. It is questionable how pirated products that are said to be manufactured in other foreign countries can be shipped here in the Philippines without the government knowing it. Aren’t there a division in our government which deals with all incoming and outgoing containers? Don’t there have to be a waybill in every container or any shipment in that matter that will be shipped in and out of the country? Pirated DVDs, replica bags, shoes, and eyewear were confiscated by the Bureau of Customs, National Bureau of Investigation and the Optical Media Board and were destroyed by authorities, Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines Director General Ricardo Blancaflor said. ‘High value’ goods like fake Louis Vuitton bags, Oakley shades, Lacoste shoes were among the items destroyed during the ceremony, he explained.“Anything that’s illegal, we’ll destroy,” declared Optical Media Board chairman Ronnie Ricketts. He also said the campaign against piracy and counterfeiting is on-going, also adding that the ranking of the Philippines in the US piracy watch-list has been downgraded. “It’s not yet off the watch-list, but our (Philippines) ranking has gone down,” The Philippines has been taken off the Out-of-cycle review of the US piracy watch-list. “Hopefully, by next year we will be off it,” said Blancaflor. Blancaflor said that it is sad reality to piracy and counterfeiting was the loss of livelihood for many Filipinos, comparing counterfeiting and piracy to identity theft. “It’s like when someone’s name is stolen. It’s unfair. (Because of piracy) artists lose their jobs… and counterfeit medicine poses health risks to people.” I also know that Piracy is bad, but how can I afford original DVDs? Im a big fan of asian telenovelas, be it drama, comedy, or action. I cannot buy original DVDs of those here in the Philippines because there’s no one selling it. So I had to give in and buy pirated DVDs. Also, like me, we believe that buying original DVDs is not practical since it costs too much and you will only see one movie. After watching it, you have nothing but a CD that has the movie you already watched. If they can lower the price of the DVDs and make more variety available, then I would gladly buy original than the pirated ones.