June 18, 2006
The Bad Consumer
There used to be a time when I and some equally nocturnal friends would make a quick trip to Fuente Osmena to grab a very late dinner and, what else, check out the latest selections of pirated movies being sold outside restaurants in the area. The last couple of bootleg movies I remember buying were "The Stepford Wives" and "Alexander," which I have no remorse for considering how bad of a movie it was.
But since I've moved further away from the downtown area, I no longer have as much access to pirated VCDs (now, that sounds very archaic) than before. Being constantly admonished by The One on breaking the anti-piracy law also seemingly worked. I'm a work in progress. He's still harping on the fact that watching pirated movies purchased by someone else does not make it a lesser offense than buying bootlegs myself. How can you argue with that?
Pirates at Fuente Osmena have upgraded their business as well and are now selling DVDs. Now you can get four movies in one disc at the same price. Sounds like a good deal, right? What bothers me more is the fact that this illegal activity is happening right in front of a police station. Some people suspect the cops must be getting "commissions" in exchange for a hassle-free trade, or are simply resigned to the thought that stopping piracy is akin to rounding up the women who work Cebu's streets at night only to find them back in business the following evening.
If you don't mind bad audio, bootlegs like these are easily available in the city's downtown area, at about half the price of a movie ticket.
Or is it because as a country we never really took the anti-piracy law seriously? Sure, we hear of raids being conducted every now and then by the Optical Media Board with reporters and cameramen in tow, and so they are seen as nothing more than political gimmickry.
In 2005, a global survey placed the software piracy rate in the Philippines at 71 percent, which translates to millions of dollars in losses for the packaged software industry. What this means to me is that stealing is fast becoming a norm in this country, from the corporate boardrooms to the crowded streets. It is a serious problem, all right.