Friday, April 11, 2008 Speak out: The matter of piracy By Emmanuel Rosos Larmen de Guia Memorial College
THE recording industry these days has been labeling many acts as piracy.
But just what is piracy?
Is copying a CD piracy?
Record producers contend that if one makes a copy of a CD, whether the whole disc or just part of it, that is piracy.
It does not matter to them who copies the discs or why.
But I think their contention is wrong.
To make a copy of discs for personal use, or to make a custom mix of your favorite song for the discs you own is par for the course.
To make CD copies to sell for profit is piracy.
It is easy to find bootlegs and pirated CDs.
Go to a flea market, a street vendor or some thrift stores, and you will find music CDs and videos at amazingly low prices. CDs can often be found at around P70. Not all music CDs sold in flea markets are pirated.
But much of these are.
You can tell that the discs are not the genuine article.
The cover titles are wrong, or the colors are dull. The packaging is different from CDs in malls.
The main reason is that people who buy a CD for under P70 would never spend almost P250 pesos for CDs at the malls.
They wouldn't even consider it.
Most people know that the cheap CDs sold are pirated, but after weeks and months and you return to the flea market, the dealers are still there.
