Just How Bad is Asian Movie Piracy?

27th April 2007

posted in Car Accesories: Other topics, Car Parts: Opinions |

Just how bad (or good) is movie piracy in Asia?

A few days ago, an article in Digg made the front page claiming that Spiderman 3 is already available in the Asian market as a DVD. After some research and a lot of bugging people to tell me about it, I came up with some facts that will blow your minds away. These are the sort of stuff that will make you want to buy a ticket this summer to go to, say China or the Philippines. These stated, I think that the following facts plus the pictures pretty much speaks for themselves.

Here are my findings:

In countries like the Philippines, pirated DVD’s have become the norm, offering a more affordable way to collect movies that you like.
These DVD’s are available almost anywhere from malls botiques to sidewalk vendors. Some places cater to hundreds of stalls selling only pirated DVD movies.
The usual cost of these DVD’s range from one to two dollars. Single movies are cheaper than say a collection of movies.
The trend in Asia are 8 to 12 movie DVD’s. These usually sacrifice other options like having sound play in 5.1 channels, but offer DVD clarity. This option allows the buyer to buy, for example, movies that revolve around a common theme. Common titles include Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter movies in one DVD or complete seasons of many television series.

Movies usually appear a good two weeks before their theater screenings. For some movies it is earlier. Weeks before they are shown, many blockbuster movies are already being sold. Some of them even have a tags saying indicating that they are for evaluation or prescreening purposes.
In Asia, one can buy a complete series in DVD in HD for a dollar per CD with one CD holding up to 8 episodes. Available are complete seasons of CSI, LOST, HEROES, 24 and almost all popular series in the US.
All pirated DVD’s are not region dependent meaning they will play on any player from any region. Especially made DVD players are also available especially made to read pirated DVD’s and DVD-R CD’s.
Pirated DVD collections are compressed in what they call DVD 9 which allows up to sixteen Medium to Good Definition movies.
Packaging is equal if not better than the original. Print includes excellent print on cardboard complete with embossed designs, etc.etc.

Selection for movies range from movies made in the sixtys to those not yet shown in theaters.
Some movies usually first appear as clear copies (not yet DVD) copies. The usual time before a DVD copy (one that has extra features and better set up options) comes out ranges from 2 to 4 months after a theatrical release.

Also available are Play Station 2 games ($3 per tile), MP3 compilations ($1 per 8 album collection), Audio CD’s (50 cents per album), and computer softwares (price varies but Vista for example sold for only $4).

This may sound like haven for movie enthusiasts and collectors, but in the long run, I feel that this is going to cause a lot of problems for the entertainment industry. Looking at third world countries though where and original DVD costs up to $40 which is almost a quarter of their minimum wage, it is not surprising that people will turn to these alternative sources of entertainment.

Updates:

Just a day after I wrote this article a friend sent me the following pictures of an establishment that sells only pirated DVD’s. He told me that it was a scary risk to take the picture because many of the people who operate those businesses are always on the look out for any signs from authorities. Getting caught might mean confiscation of his camera or worse, being beaten up.

A Peek of the Underground

If one will look carefully literally thousands of pirated movies are on display in these establishments without even a hint of trying to keep them from prying eyes. They are displayed even on the street like they were legitimate goods for sale.

Update: May 2, 2007

Digg looked like it has been taken over by a mob today as diggers of the popular Social News site fought against the censorship of the revealed DVD HD key which will inevitably make make the technology available to widespread piracy operations. This update is made on the assumption that this discovery will only be the start of a major trend in the piracy world. Surely this day will be marked on many calendars as the day another door was opened to bring high end entertainment to the masses.

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 27th, 2007 at 5:43 am and is filed under Car Accesories: Other topics, Car Parts: Opinions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On May 1st, 2007, ja-9 said:

but pirated dvds only play in pirated dvd players, or really cheap dvd players which gets busted in say a year.

2 On May 2nd, 2007, swamy said:

Better to offer original products at a reasonable price to third world countries to avoid the above problem. Considering the income and living standards it is very difficult for the third world/developing countries to afford higher costs of the products. Ofcourse, this doesn’t mean to support or encourage the copy right violation

3 On May 2nd, 2007, John Edik said:

Intellectual property is of course humankind property like anyone digging just a little under the surface well and easily discovers. This is very well the plain truth for 99.9% of patents at this point in time but with respect to authors of books and movies, plays or similar works of art and academic and scientific work it is very sad (and very bad news for all of us) if they do not recover (somehow) at the very least what they invested in time and money. The good authors are generous. Most are willing to work for a modest profit.

4 On May 3rd, 2007, Skykid said:

The 8 in one trend is a very good one - hopefully more of these dvd will find their way on the p2p stage

5 On May 3rd, 2007, hail to the almighty zeus said:

“but pirated dvds only play in pirated dvd players, or really cheap dvd players which gets busted in say a year.”

Really? I pirate my own DVDs at home, and they play in all standard DVD players. You’d think somebody who can press their own dual-layer DVDs and put a lot into the printing process would take care of a minor detail like that.

6 On May 3rd, 2007, Pamela said:

We adopted our daughter from China last Spring and came home with close to 40 DVDs, mostly Disney movies, but there were a couple that had not been released in our theaters. We only had one DVD that would not play. It is a remarkable business in China, virtually every large marketplace we went to had numerous booths and shops selling these, the average price we paid was $1.25 USD. We have a very high-end DVD player and have not had problems viewing these movies and they also played in our our laptops and desktop PCs.

7 On May 3rd, 2007, Tom said:

“but pirated dvds only play in pirated dvd players, or really cheap dvd players which gets busted in say a year.”

I lived in china for a year and have binders of dvds and they all work in any dvd player I have tried them in.

8 On May 3rd, 2007, Barkley said:

I lived in South Korea for over a year teaching English and I can attest to the prevalence of pirated dvds. While being there I picked up about 60 dvds for about 4 dollars each. Most were good quality and I didn’t have problems with regional issues.

9 On May 16th, 2007, Arwee said:

I read about this article and would like to add a lil more info about how things now go back here in the philippines, these things update too according to customer feedbacks. Now these pirated dvds and dvd-9’s will run on almost any regional dvd player (high end, pirated dvd players(and yeah, these pirated players don’t easily break), PC’s), and if they don’t run on your player, you can easily return them to your favorite “store”, and have them replaced or swapped for another movie of choice. These pirates have really gone hi-tech that they know which dvd’s are theirs by looking at numbers or some color beneath the dvd’s (which really amazes me!), dvd-9’s these days have like 20-22 (max) TV series episodes packed inside them and they cost like about $1.40, and ps2 and xbox dvd’s cost about the same price. And there’s this one place where you can order a download of psp games for almost the same price), i bet things will be much more “interesting” once blu-ray discs become cheaper.

10 On June 15th, 2007, si said:

article seems to condemn piracey…..

11 On August 10th, 2007, storm trooper said:

the big question: who is the contact/supplier of the original hollywood movies in the states to these so called dvd pirates??? somebody out there must be duplicating it while it is being screened first by the censors/producers/directors etc then download it to the far east.

it is impossible that original movies some not yet shown in the usa movie houses will just pop up in the far east for no reason at all.
look at your backyard first before putting the blame on china-philippines-asia-far east.

why blame your cat for eating your table food when in fact you forgot to cover it in the first place.

12 On August 24th, 2007, Kristian Sharpe said:

On the one hand it’s because the world’s in such a mess regarding copyright ownership of a mass produced / mass producible product … thousands of greedy capitalistic so called entrepreneurs fighting to make a ridiculous amount of money from one single product….then they rub it in the faces of developing countries and wonder why it’s abused….? Why should they give a damn about our laws…..they don’t have to? why not make money from something you keep the real truth close to heart……hey ….it’s not like they don’t tell you they’re copies? I’ve had first hand inexperience of these stalls / markets / traders….!

the movies are leaked by people very close to home! seriously….I’ve had experience of this too…..! I actually know how it’s done….and for how much!

While the western world continues to undermine …criticize …and patronize our fellow earthlings….. should we not just let them get on with it….. ? we left them in the state they’re in! it was our decision to capitalize on their wealth many centuries ago….

So…?

Why throw your toys out of the pram……

sorry…. did you want EVEN MORE MONEY?

If you don’t like piracy….then don’t support it…..!

I can guarantee many of the comments on this site have come from people who own computers with illegal music & movie downloads…

think about it! ever copied a tape…? a CD? perhaps made a video of a movie broadcast?

13 On August 24th, 2007, Kristian Sharpe said:

# 10 On June 15th, 2007, si said:

article seems to condemn piracey….

Did you not mean “Condone”

not being pedantic…. just helping continuity..

ps…..

“why blame your cat for eating your table food when in fact you forgot to cover it in the first place.”

Because people in the East are not domestic animals……..?

14 On September 12th, 2007, Mike said:

I found a company that sells dvds that I am interested in. They are silver backed DVDs, does that mean that they are 100% original? or is it possible to copy a new released movie on a silver backed dvd?

Also, if they have a dvd-9 symbol on the dvd itself does that mean it is a copy?

Please answer each question separately.

15 On September 13th, 2007, Chris said:

I am not sure how to answer your question. One thing is for sure though, first, if you are in the US, an original copy will have to come directly from the distributor of the film and will usually have the necessary markings that denote it is the real thing. I am not familiar with silver backed DVD’s but I can say that that is highly possible. There are tons of silver backed DVD-R’s available in many stores in the country.

I personally think that DVD 9 does not necessarily mean a DVD is pirated but with most pirated DVD’s that is like a logo that they like to put on their covers. DVD-9 is nowadays often used as the marketing term for dual layer DVD-R and DVD+R discs and use of that name is quite appropriate as the dual layer recordable discs can hold exactly the same amount of data as “pressed” DVD-9 discs can.