Truths about piracy

To showbizniz, everything about piracy is disturbing and destructive; but to the average pinoy/pinay who has fascination for Kim Chiu, Coco Martin, the yearly entries to the Manila Film Fest, Lady Gaga and Wonder Girls but can only spare a hundred and ten for such a whim, a hobby or whatever it is to them and cannot wait for the new movies or to be shown in the channels of the boobtube or the orginal CDs to be distributed in stores, piracy is like manna from the heavens.
The only reason this type of activity is hyped is because it is patronized by the common people the way they patronize ukay-ukay over brand new designer clothes. And there’s one root to that behaviour---the cost.
“Why would I buy a 500-peso worth of shirt from B3***4 or P3*****3 when everyone already has it, when I can just spare a hundred of my salary/allowance and own a not-so-new but looking new B5*5*5 R39u871c shirt which has a slim chance of having a duplicate in my immediate world or why would I buy the original C45**3L or G***i if I can buy an imitation which looks impeccably like the original.” Hmm.
Actually, the word piracy has five definitions in the Encarta Encyclopedia.
1) robbery on high seas: robbery on the high seas, especially the stealing of a ship's cargo. 2) robbery on any form of transportation: robbery committed on board any form of transportation, especially an aircraft 3) hijacking: the hijacking of an aircraft or another form of transportation 4) use of copyrighted material without permission: the taking and using of copyrighted or patented material without authorization or without the legal right to do so. 5) illegal broadcasting: the unauthorized or illegal broadcasting of TV or radio programs.
The fourth definition was purposely italicized because it is the kind of piracy talked about in this article with a few analogies to the others here and there.
According to piracy.com, all forms of piracy are an offence to the universal laws of society. Yes, society, not nature because pirates violate established human order. Simply put, they are outlaws in that they rob in all the sense of the word and are feared and hated by the people. Just to inject though, there came a time when seafaring pirates were commissioned by belligerent nations to carry on naval warfare (referring to definition 1). Seafaring pirates still exist today but the more common type of piracy is that which a great many peoples don’t only accept, they patronize it for their financial and self-esteem benefits.
It bloats the ego to be the first to know what “He’s Not that in to You” is all about before it hits the big screen or Beyonce’s newest single even before the album containing it is launched doesn’t it? Not to mention it saves so much expense.
I personally am a movie addict (save the likes of Saw and Hostel). But I can’t afford to watch all the entries to the Manila Film Fest in the movie house. I can only spend a hundred with my every salary.
This December though I watched 2 entries to the film fest in the big screen, not to mention their names, because the tickets were paid for by friends (lol). After watching, I felt proud of the quality of some of our (Pinoy) movies.
In fact, one of my new year’s resolutions is to minimize my patronizing piracy #4 especially when it comes to local films; but stop it? Hmm.
If one looks closer, there’s very little bragging about who has originals of what nowadays. What matters to the people now is that they’ve seen it, heard it, know it.
Sad as it seems, this is one bad bug to show business. But what can we do? Can we really do something about it?