The rising swell of media piracy won't be much affected by the new low-tech, four-legged deterrent from the Motion Picture Association of America, writes VICTORIA ROBSON
Walking into the average Thai market, I, along with hundreds of other shoppers, are faced with a plethora of vendors selling more or less the same goods: food, clothing, house wares or souvenirs. Embedded in the garden of stalls, however, I always tend to find the usually popular vendor of pirated movie DVDs, music CDs or computer software. Drawn in by the alluring illustrations of movies not yet out in theatres entices even the most frugal of shoppers. Who can resist buying software at a fraction of the original price? No one takes a second to think of the legality of it all, since the consequences to the average consumer of pirated products have been minimal, if any.
In the United States, DVDs of newly released movies go for at least $20 (650 baht). As a college student struggling to pay my way through college, I really don't see the practicality in spending a meal's worth of money to buy one movie that I can surely download for free on the internet.
Enter: Shawn Fanning, college dropout. It seems like all of today's entrepreneurs and billionaire moguls never had to suffer through the glory days we know as college. Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Steve Jobs and Ted Turner, to name a few, all dropped out of college only to go on and make billions. If only we were all so lucky. But that's besides the point.
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| Philippine Interior Secretary Jose Lina (R), accompanied by film actress Tracy Torres (C) and unidentified police officers, leads group in the destruction of millions of copies of pirated CDs worth some one billion Philippine pesos ($18.8 million) during a ceremony at the Philippine National Police headquaraters in suburban Manila. |
Shawn Fanning created Napster. Napster changed the cyber world as we know it. And the rest is history. (But as we all know, when you delete something on your computer, it's never really gone. It still exists somewhere in what we call cyber space.)
As the first free peer-to-peer file sharing program that allowed its users to share music and movies, Napster was the catalyst that changed the music industry forever. Joining in the craze, I was excited to see that I could download single tracks instead of buying entire albums for just one or two songs.
Making mixed CDs with my favourite songs quickly became more of a sport than a pastime. For two or three Christmases, all my mom got were CDs full of U2, Bon Jovi and Rod Stewart. For my brother, Linkin Park, Eminem and Limp Bizkit. My friends soon came to expect nothing but personalised mixed CDs with a colourfully drawn "Happy Birthday!" on the album cover for their special days. What says "I love you" better than a CD full of songs that I know they will enjoy?
The popularity of this little programme soared, attracting the attention of record companies like Sony, BMG, Universal and big-name celebrities like Dr Dre, Madonna and Metallica. They all accused Napster of massive copyright infringements. With a technology available that allows users to get their hands on the latest tracks of these artists for free, who would go out to buy the album for $20 or more?
Big-time users of Napster who had downloaded thousands of songs were accused of pirating these songs and reselling them, and many were tracked down and pinned with a heavy fine. University students, like myself, are now allowed only a certain amount of bandwidth when using computers on campus. As downloading music and movies takes up a large part of this bandwidth, the administration is aware of those who abuse it and either shut down their accounts or fine them.
It was the many lawsuits filed against Napster that eventually caused it to shut down in 2001. Many restrictions, like those mentioned above, soon arose to help in the combat against copyright violations and piracy.
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| Sniffer dogs Lucky and Flo. |
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| An official inspects the stacks of over 26 million pirated compact discs to be destroyed at a ceremony in Shanwei, in China's Guangdong province. |
However, the birth of Napster sparked the appearance of hundreds of other similar programmes. Trying to keep track of all the users of these programmes is difficult, therefore millions of people are able to continue to download music illegally and stay under the radar. Including myself. And all of my friends. And their friends.
This translates to continuing losses for media empires and artists, amounting to billions of dollars lost. More specifically, $18.2 billion lost worldwide in 2005 to piracy.
The new breed
Now, however, a new breed of anti-piracy tactics has taken copyright protection to a whole new level. Meet Lucky and Flo, the Motion Picture Association of America's (MPAA) answer to the ever-present intellectual property rights struggle.
As the world's first canine unit able to detect pirated optical discs, they are trained to specifically identify the polycarbonate present in all CDs and DVDs. Since the smell of illegally copied discs is indistinguishable from that of genuine material, the dogs will eventually learn to recognise bags and packages harbouring large quantities of CDs, which usually turn out to be pirated.
Currently operating at Stansted Airport in the United Kingdom, Lucky and Flo are responsible for checking incoming and outgoing Fed Ex packages, but have yet been unsuccessful. The MPAA is hopeful and assures that these canines are making progress. Right.
Internationally, Thailand is known as one of the biggest offenders for producing and selling illegally copied optical discs, holding rank as one of the top 12 listed on the United States Trade Representative's piracy watch list. With such a reputation, what does the implementation of a few teams of canine investigators mean to Thailand's number one black market best-seller? Nothing.
Unless the MPAA intends to extend the funds and resources required to find and train enough dogs to cover the major airports of the world, they stand no chance against the millions of individuals who take to pirating movies and music for a living.
There is also no way to stop the amateur downloaders of music and movies (like my entire generation) which are costing record and movie production companies millions.
With such a booming industry, some of the major movie pirates have gone so far as to place a bounty of $29,000 (900,000 baht) on the heads of Lucky and Flo upon hearing of their capabilities. It seems to me like they are wasting their money. Even if they do manage to capture these dogs, it would barely cause a ripple in the illegally obtained entertainment industry.
Looks like the MPAA is going to have to come up with a more cost-effective and feasible answer to the rampant acts of piracy rather than to resort to training our pets to recognise the smell of polycarbonate.
Victoria Robson is a senior studying Economics at Penn State University in the USA. She is currently doing an internship at the Bangkok Post.
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