Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Pirated Movies And Software In Asia

Pirated movies, games, software and even pornography are a huge industry in many parts of Asia.

Piracy is like a cancer. It seems there is no cure for it.

Record companies and Movie companies have millions to spend on anti piracy measures but they can’t seem to prevent piracy from flourishing.

When I travel to Bangkok, I like to visit Pantip Plaza, which is the major electronics hub of Bangkok.

I have been shopping there for many years and can bear witness to the huge amount of pirated movies, software, games and music that is being sold in Pantip Plaza.

About half of the five floor complex is devoted to the selling of pirated material.

The system works like this. There are dozens of small booths set up in the complex where the vendors display the covers of the DVDS.

The actual disks are kept in a different part of the building.

They have touts working for them. The touts entice the shoppers to browse the new movie releases. After browsing the movies for sale, the shoppers are offered pornography, games and business software.

The hottest item of software at the moment is Windows Vista.

It seems odd but many of the computer shops sell new computers without any operating system, and it is almost as if they are saying, don’t pay for a licensed operating system when you can get a working copy for pennies.

The sellers of pirated software at Pantip Plaza have their own network of security to warn their bosses of police raids.

Lookouts roam the lower floors of Pantip searching for police who are trying to catch the vendors red handed.

I asked a vendor if he was ever caught and he explained to me that the police can only prosecute if they catch you with the actual disks.

If you have the artwork covers but they can’t find the discs, then you have no case to answer for.

When a shopper places an order, he hands over his cash and told to come back in fifteen minutes.

The cost for a new release movie or software title is about two dollars

During that time, the pirated disks are brought over from some hidden location and then passed to the purchaser in a plain unmarked bag.

Pantip Plaza has been selling pirated material in this manner for years.

Amazingly the police never see fit to shut it down.

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