The Case for Movie Piracy
Mighty)
Movie piracy in the Philippines is big thing in the Philippines. People do not want to spend P130-P200 pesos for just watching movies. If they started watching all of the good movies out there, we’d run out of money! So, people settle for the next best thing — movie piracy in the form of DVDs and CDs. There are other sources of movie piracy actually and people can start getting media content for free!
Here are reasons why movie piracy is growing and will continue to grow in the future.
1. Movie piracy provides inexpensive access to digital media content.
Imagine getting three DVDs for PhP100?! That’s very cheap! Not only that, each DVD usually contains 8-10 movies! Given a choice between this option and the original DVD of PhP300 each, the logical choice is pirated DVDs.
2. Movie piracy also helps distribute hard to find movies such as classics, art films, non-hollywood foreign films, anime movies, episodes of popular TV shows and other kinds of movies and shows.
People would naturally look for their favorite shows in pirated DVD stalls in Quiapo and elsewhere.
3. Movie piracy allows people to watch their favorite movies whenever they want.
Another perceived of movie piracy is that people can just watch the movies they love whenever they want. They don’t have to wait for the DVD to come out. They can still watch their favorite movies even if they missed the movie screening schedule.
4. Movie piracy allows people to save money.
Given the level of poverty in the Philippines, most people are looking for ways to save money. So instead of trooping to the movie theaters, they would just pass through the sidewalk vendors or go to Quiapo and buy pirated DVDs. This way, they save up to 300% off the price of going to the movie houses.
5. Lastly, movie piracy provides employment to a lot of people in the Philippines.
Yes, it’s illegitimate and illegal. But poor people choose movie piracy because of the profits that they can derive from this industry.
These are the arguments for movie piracy in the Philippines. In another post, I explored the real cost of piracy in the Philippines.
| 3.1 (1 person) |
I’ve been reading along for a while now. I just wanted to drop you a comment to say keep up the good work.
Ako rin, was just digging up your site this morning. Funny how we’ve been going to the same events and seeing the same movies
@Rick: Thanks for the encouragement. I’ll continue writing to keep penstalker fun and informative.
cheers. Bookmark ko ung site mo. lagay ko sa blogroll ko.
@nan: heheh, hopefully magmeet tayo minsan in those events or movies.
If I remember it right, movie piracy ‘forced’ the cost of original CDs/DVDs to go down, especially yung sa music. There was a time na pareho sila ng cost ng foreign albums (P400+). Now OPM CDs are down to P200-250.
Maybe they can do the same sa Filipino movies. Okey lang sa akin kung gawin nilang P100 na lang yung mga bago. Hehehe. At sana, wag nang patagalin ang paglabas ng DVD at CD form. Nade-defeat din naman yung purpose ng sobrang mas matagal na labas ng CD/DVD kesa sa paglabas ng movie e. There are people who can’t afford going to theaters but still want to watch the movie nang maaga. So what they do is buy pirated CDs. If may original DVD/CDs na say, two weeks after natapos ang showing ng palabas (at mura pa), bibili na sila ng orig. I think!
I don’t think we can stop piracy sa paghuhuli ng pirata. Movie and music producers have to explore ways to capitalize on the trend. Yun bang win-win!
I-kopyaannak man ketdi kadagiti koleksyon mo ti FPJ films la, Mighty. Tay “Ako ang Huhuli sa mga Pirata!” hehehe
Mustan ading?
Ne-ay, pay met adda ti “rate”nan? Saan a siak dayta ha, otherwise, Gen. Patton ang ratingko!
manang Sherma, yeah. Somehow, piracy helped bring down the cost of CDs and DVDs and made them available to us ordinary people. Hahah. Kelangan nga ng win-win situation. Gaya ng mga Thais. hollywood lang ang pinipirata. heheh
Manong VF!! Kumusta? Asi ti Apo, natarakiak pay met latta!! Hahah. Inton agawid ka agsapulnak iti FPJ collection. HAhahah