Friday, September 08, 2006
Baguio-Benguet musicians slam piracy
By Jane Cadalig
A GROUP of local musicians raised their concern over rampant piracy in the music and film industry saying that even their works are not spared from the illegal activity.
The Cordillera Producers and Recording Artists Association (CPRAA), a group of local singers as well as film and music television producers, assailed the illegal activity saying that they have been losing much to the thievery of their intellectual property rights.
They said piracy is a lingering problem that is killing the country’s film and music industry.
CPRAA president Jun Garcia said members of the group, who usually work individually, decided to organize themselves to have a stronger voice in campaigning against piracy.
"At first, we did not pay much attention to the pirating of local tapes and CDs (compact discs) because we believed that customers would soon realize that the quality of pirated items is not good and this would discourage them to buy pirated ones," Garcia told reporters.
"But we were alarmed because the (unauthorized reproduction) of our works continued to grow. That’s why we decided to form the association to go against piracy. We may not be able to put a stop to it totally, but we are hoping that our campaign would somehow minimize this illegal act," he said.
The CPRAA was organized last year and has 27 members from Baguio and Benguet.
Despite apprehensions done by authorities, pirated tapes, CDs and video CDs continue to sell like hotcakes along sidewalks and record stalls nationwide because these illegally reproduced materials are much cheaper than the original ones.
They said original tapes and CDs containing local songs, MTVs and films are sold at P120 and P150 each, respectively, while pirated items sell only at P35 per piece.
Ricky Balangcod, one of the local producers, said production cost of 1,000 pieces of cassette tapes ranges from P60,000 to P70,000, but can go higher depending on the talent fee of the singer. He said CDs of the same volume cost about P40,000 to produce.
To keep the local music industry alive, the group urged consumers not to patronize pirated materials and buy only from legitimate record bars to ensure that what they are purchasing are the original items.
Republic Act (RA) 9239 or the Optical Media Law penalizes the unauthorized reproduction, in whole or in part, of any CD, VCD or cassette tape.
(September 8, 2006 issue)
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