I've been a music fan ever since I first listened to my old walkman. It is always a part of growing up that you and your friends share a common interest in music maybe because the lyrics sang by the artist inspire you or suggest what you are or what you want to be. Back in the days people don't go to the internet to download music or watch videos. It was a little simple just having an old cassette tape or renting VHS tape at the rental shop. Yes that’s what life is especially in the Philippines. In 1995 - 2001 DVD are rare to find back then and tapes and cassettes dominate the scene. Audio CD's will burn your wallet 'cause it has a nice price tag of 900php each for international artist and 500-600php for the locals. For a teenager like me buying a 150 php worth of cassette tape was a little much 'cause I only have 20 bucks per day. Back then I have to listen to the radio just to listen for my favorite artist or barrow tapes in my cousin or friends. But then came Piracy and things changed.
I was drawn to it one day when I went to the local commercial centre and I saw people swarming a stand that was selling pirated cd's. That time I had a new disk-man that was a Christmas gift given to me by my mom in the states and my cd collection wasn’t that much. I only had 5 cd's and was getting a little bit bored listening to the same sounds day in and day out. Feeling a bit curious I went to the stand and browsed the cd selections and looked if there are cd's from artists I would like to listen to. I asked the sales lady the prize of a cd and she replied politely to me that it was 50 pesos per copy. Back then piracy was not yet common place and I thought that those disks were original copies. I was wondering why they sold for such a low prize. I begin to get excited to know that I can afford even one cd per week in my allowance.
As I said before a copy of a disk became very cheap and affordable that anyone even a commoner became so accustomed to buying one. Now let’s talk about the morals of buying or supporting pirated copies of cd’s. In an article on wikipedia.com:
As I said before a copy of a disk became very cheap and affordable that anyone even a commoner became so accustomed to buying one. Now let’s talk about the morals of buying or supporting pirated copies of cd’s. In an article on wikipedia.com:
“In the 1990s, piracy of music CDs began to become an international phenomenon, especially in Asia and Latin America. It is estimated that over 100 million CDs have been illegally reproduced for selling. In the case of music CDs, it is much more difficult to catch pirates. Illegal copies are unlikely to be found at retail stores; the pirates instead sell copies at on-street markets and other personal selling sites such as eBay for as low as 1 USD.”
Here in the Philippines almost everyone buys pirated things from shoes, wallets, bags, handkerchiefs, DVD and audio cd’s. The growing number of patronizers is probably caused by the people who cannot afford the price of an original copy. But even the middle class and some of the rich folks buy these products in the market. Right hear you can virtually buy these things at the mall, at the “palengke” or market, and people who have a CD-ROM burner in their PC’s. You just can’t help it because it’s everywhere. We all know that piracy is illegal but is it our fault that we patronize these and more and more distributors are selling these products. The fact that an original copy of a disk is three to five times the price of the pirated cd is attracting more and more people into buying the fake ones rather than the original. Here you can buy an 8 in 1 movie DVD at the stands and it cost only 70-80 php. Imagine that it is only 10 php per movie and did I tell you there is also a 12 in 1 DVD. What are the odds for a person to choose the fake one to the original?
Now let’s get back to me being a music lover. We all know that the internet has many file sharing soft-wares and downloading mp3’s is just a click away from the mouse button. I’ll admit that I’m not much into buying audio cd these days due to the fact that it stacks up in my closest and if it gets to many I’ll have trouble arranging it all. For me it is not practical anymore to have so many audio cd’s in your bedroom because thanks to the handy MP3 player I could save myself for all the troubles. Just download it and you can instantly play your music right into your computer or mp3 player.
My point is it’s so easy these days not to buy the original things and my question is are we to blame ourselves or blame it on technological progress. Maybe we should blame the big corporations that produce these products and tell them not to set the price too high. Are the artists ignorant of this because they are being paid high amounts for setting big record or movie ticket sales? Back then it is not possible to burn a DVD into your ROM. But now, what the heck it’s all so instant.
Now who should we blame now? I will tell you myself that I am not guilty of this act. I buy Pirated CD’s and download mp3 on my pc. Like me there are many who exactly do the same as I do. But can they tell us that we are at fault for what has become. That record companies are losing millions every time a person downloads five albums in his pc. Like nature itself we have to adapt to survive and piracy for me is just a sign of change. Piracy is probably been made because of peoples greed to profit with less capital but greed itself is human nature. We just cannot take it away because it is there to the very start and I think that Piracy will always be there to the very end. Times change and for me things will have to adapt with it. That is why we have technology and we did not ask for it. I see no-one and nothing to blame because it is just there and it cannot be stopped. The question is are you still against it?
Here in the Philippines almost everyone buys pirated things from shoes, wallets, bags, handkerchiefs, DVD and audio cd’s. The growing number of patronizers is probably caused by the people who cannot afford the price of an original copy. But even the middle class and some of the rich folks buy these products in the market. Right hear you can virtually buy these things at the mall, at the “palengke” or market, and people who have a CD-ROM burner in their PC’s. You just can’t help it because it’s everywhere. We all know that piracy is illegal but is it our fault that we patronize these and more and more distributors are selling these products. The fact that an original copy of a disk is three to five times the price of the pirated cd is attracting more and more people into buying the fake ones rather than the original. Here you can buy an 8 in 1 movie DVD at the stands and it cost only 70-80 php. Imagine that it is only 10 php per movie and did I tell you there is also a 12 in 1 DVD. What are the odds for a person to choose the fake one to the original?
Now let’s get back to me being a music lover. We all know that the internet has many file sharing soft-wares and downloading mp3’s is just a click away from the mouse button. I’ll admit that I’m not much into buying audio cd these days due to the fact that it stacks up in my closest and if it gets to many I’ll have trouble arranging it all. For me it is not practical anymore to have so many audio cd’s in your bedroom because thanks to the handy MP3 player I could save myself for all the troubles. Just download it and you can instantly play your music right into your computer or mp3 player.
My point is it’s so easy these days not to buy the original things and my question is are we to blame ourselves or blame it on technological progress. Maybe we should blame the big corporations that produce these products and tell them not to set the price too high. Are the artists ignorant of this because they are being paid high amounts for setting big record or movie ticket sales? Back then it is not possible to burn a DVD into your ROM. But now, what the heck it’s all so instant.
Now who should we blame now? I will tell you myself that I am not guilty of this act. I buy Pirated CD’s and download mp3 on my pc. Like me there are many who exactly do the same as I do. But can they tell us that we are at fault for what has become. That record companies are losing millions every time a person downloads five albums in his pc. Like nature itself we have to adapt to survive and piracy for me is just a sign of change. Piracy is probably been made because of peoples greed to profit with less capital but greed itself is human nature. We just cannot take it away because it is there to the very start and I think that Piracy will always be there to the very end. Times change and for me things will have to adapt with it. That is why we have technology and we did not ask for it. I see no-one and nothing to blame because it is just there and it cannot be stopped. The question is are you still against it?
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